Aer and Neveril's Adventures in Time and Space
by ejhawman
Summary: Post-series. Aer and Neveril have performed the Emerald Ri Majon. My take on what they find.
1. Chapter 1

------- WARNING: NOOB ALERT --------

First-time writer here. Tear it apart, flame away, I know my writing sucks. In fact, treat it as more of a SUGGESTION of a story than an actual story. It needs to be fleshed out with the addition of romantic scenes, more characters added, deeper detail,  
all kinds of stuff I'm no good at.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

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She was soaring, in body and spirit. Soaring in pair with her beloved.  
Soaring higher and faster than anything else in the sky. Soaring to the very heavens, trying to touch the Goddess Herself.

"Let's go the the place where we can be free."

They slowed down now, higher than ever, began to turn, again and again, describing wild arcs around a sphere, leaving a trail against the violet and gold sunset sky - at first an almost harmonious blue-white, but then shifting to a clashing green. Left, right, back again, almost complete, and now a light fills the center of the sphere, so white, so pure, a light that she could almost fall into... a light that reaches out to embrace them, to fill them, engulf them, become them.

The light became the world, and the world went away.

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Sight returned, then sound. White light, white noise, a ringing in the ears, strangely not annoying, simply THERE, like it had always been a part of her. Sensations, on the skin, in the gut, lightness of head, tastes and smells never known, like everything and yet nothing.

Thoughts came and went; of what, she could not name. They seemed so signifigant as they passed over her mind, but an instant later they were lost in the flow. She couldn't pay attention: there were too many things coming at her. She was mindless, letting a river of knowledge flow through her. Someone was telling her things, too many things, she couldn't hold it all,  
couldn't focus.

Sense and thought remained jumbled for some time. Eventually things began to break up: she began to remember, to know that she was knowing, for at last her mind had something to grasp. For the barest instant, the longest eternity,  
she was All; she was everywhere, everywhen, past and future and the farthest stars all came together in her. She knew every thought, every feeling, every destiny.

The jumble again; then distinct sensation - flashes of color, bits of sound,  
words, tastes, smells, a chaos of rapid stimulus. Slowly the chaos subsided,  
the flow slowed down, and at last she found she was herself again, able to think one thing at a time, each thought to conclusion.

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Darkness outside the canopy. She was still in the cockpit, hands on the controls. How long had she sat like this? Wasn't it just dusk?

First things first: make sure everything was there. "Neveril? Are you there? Are you OK?"

"I'm here. I'm fine. You?"

"I'm good." Scan the controls: they were hovering at about their last altitude, no airspeed, as if still. No warning lights. Nothing off about the hum of the motors. "I think we're in one piece." She relaxed once it was clear they were not going to drop out of the sky. "What was all that?"

Silence for a while, as they gathered their thoughts, tried to frame the experience. "We touched God," Neveril finally said. "Became one with Tempus Spatium. I saw...the past, the future, things I can't name..." Another pause. "I don't think we can fully understand it. Not now, at least."

"Hmph. I was kinda expecting we'd see Dominura and Rimone. Or..." She didn't want to say it.

Neveril completed the thought for her. "Or Amuria."

"Mmmm...who knows, she might be out here somewhere." She peered into the darkness. "Where is here, anyway?"

"Let's get our bearings. Face us north."

Eyes starting to adjust to the darkness. Moon nearly full, stars still bright, coruscant light on the horizon heralding dawn an hour away. She checked the compass, rotated to look north. She looked out into the darkness, checking for the familiar stars. After a minute, she gave up.

"What's with these stars? I don't recognize them. Southern sky?"

"No. I know the southern sky pretty well, too. These aren't the stars we've navigated by on night patrol." A thougthful pause. "I wonder if these are our stars at all."

Aer found her attention drawn to the moon. "What's with the moon? Some kind of splotches on it. Almost like water...?" She pondered for a minute before a realization hit her. "The other world? Did we make it? Is this it?"

"Maybe," Neveril said, sounding none too sure. "If it is... we can't take anything for granted. We won't know anything about it."

The possibilites boggled the mind. Aer couldn't wait to see what it was like. "I'm taking us down."

"Wait - we should get a look from a distance first. Do a ri majon."

They did a harmless ri majon that lit the area for several seconds. They seemed to be over a plain, with a forest and lake nearby and low mountains in the distance. Aer lowered them to five hundred feet and lit up again. There were no signs of civilization: no roads, buildings, fences. The land wasn't partitioned.

They set down in a field of long grasses and climbed out. The pair looked at each other for a long moment, embraced, fell to the grass.

"A whole world of our own..." Aer mused. "Just the two of us."

Neveril didn't want to spoil the moment. They lay there together as the dawn crept over the mountains.

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When it seemed near sunrise, Neveril got up and checked the emergency suvival kit under the wing. "Flare gun, flares, bandages, compass, hunting knife... the maps won't be useful here. A service revolver and bullets..." She carefully avoided touching it. "I'm not comfortable with guns. Never learned to use one. You?"

Aer shook her head. "Hunting I can do. Gramps taught me a lot of stuff when we went camping."

"We don't know what we can eat here. For all we know everything is poisonous."

"Well, those emergency rations won't last long. I think we have to try some stuff. Get to know this place. If it's really all that deadly, nothing will save us. We've just got to try."

Neveril couldn't really argue with that. She gave Aer the knife and gun and took the rations for herself. "Where should we start?"

"That forest looks promising," Aer said, pointing the way. They started making for the tree line.

As they walked, a sun crested over distant mountains. By the time they reached the forest - jungle, actually - it was clear it was alone.

"Just one sun. Definitely not our world." Aer turned toward the trees.  
"Some morning dew. At least we should be able to drink."

They spent some time looking for useful things: stones, vines, straight branches, fruits and berries they tried tasting. They tasted horrible, but didn't seem entirely inedible. Aer baited a few traps, then they went looking around for small animals hiding in the trees. They carried branches as clubs.

After about another hour with no luck at hunting or trapping, Neveril gestured out to the field, where a heard of beasts was wandering. "Can we try those?"

"We'll have to be careful. We can only take small stuff, and the adults will be protective." She checked the gun. Small caliber, for defense, not hunting.  
It might do for smaller prey, but for larger they would have to make spears.

They had almost made it to the herd when they saw them.

The figures were dark, but stood upright and moved like people. As the pair got closer it became clear it was a group of men, darker than any people on their world, with tightly curled black hair. They were naked but for loincloths and some necklaces. All carried spears.

"Wow! Aliens!" Aer said.

"This is their world," Neveril pointed out. "We're the aliens here."

"Right. Looks like they're doing the same thing we are."

"We might not want to get too close. They may be hostile."

"They know how to live here. If we can't get away, we'll need to learn from them."

They approached slowly. The men eventually noticed them and began to speak among themsleves. They weren't using any language Aer had ever heard. It seemed full of clicks and whistles.

"Ummm...hi there!" Aer held up her hands, palms out, hoping they would decide she was harmless. "We're sort of new around here...I'm Aer." She put her hand to her chest. "A-ER."

Neveril also put her hand to her own chest. "NE-VE-RI-L," she enunciated.

The men continued to discuss among themselves for a bit. Finally, one of them made a come-here gesture.

"I think they're trying to sound friendly," Aer said. "And we're in spear range anyway... I would guess they know how to use those things..." She hesitantly walked forward. Neveril followed.

They were soon face-to-face. The oldest-looking one said something.

Neveril looked to Aer, then turned back to the dark man. "We aren't from around here..."

The old man gestured to one of the younger men and gave what sounded like orders. The younger man gestured at the sybillae and started to move off.

"I guess we follow him," Neveril said.

"Where?"

"Probably their camp."

The camp was over a mile away. There were half a dozen animal hide tents and a number of women and children. The women, like their men, wore only loincloths. The children were entirely naked. One of the women looked to be close to giving birth.

The man who had escorted them said a few things to them, then to the women.  
After a short discussion, he headed back out. The sybillae understood they were intended to stay at the camp.

"We might as well start learning their language," Neveril said. "We need to be able to understand them if we are to survive."

"Neveril...that child..." Aer pointed at one, who stared back in amazement.

"A male child...?" The sybillae were equally fascinated. "I guess we shouldn't be surprised."

"Do you think they're actaully born like that?" Aer asked.

"They hardly look like they can do it they way the Argentines do."

"You know about that?"

Neveril stared at her pair. "YOU know? I've had some intelligence briefings,  
but I didn't think you did..."

Aer blushed. "Well, I sorta... interrogated one once."

"You'll have to tell me about it sometime." Neveril thought it sounded like an interesting story.

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They spent several hours working out basic words with the dark women: Man, woman, child - two words for these, one for male and one for female - tent,  
rock, spear, land, sky, words for foods, beasts, kinds of plants. Connecting words would take longer, they knew, but they started getting the basics down.

Their lessons were interrupted when the heavily pregnant woman went into labor. Aer and Neveril could only sit back as the experienced women of the band helped with the birth. Neveril tried not to look, clearly getting disgusted. Aer found it uncomfortable to look at as well, but forced herself to watch.

When the child was out, the women passed it around to look at. Aer and Neveril both found they were expected to hold the child, still covered in fluids. Neveril looked about to turn green afterward.

"They don't know enough to wash their children at birth..." she said.

"We should do them a favor and show them --" Aer said, reaching for a water skin, but Neveril stayed her hand.

"They might take it the wrong way," she said. "Now is not the time."

Aer scowled, but settled down. "Bet the kid dies of infection in a few days."

"At least your question is answered," Neveril said. "They are born male."

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A while later the hunting party came back, two of their number carrying a trussed-up beast. The women quickly set to it with their stone knives, skinning it and carving it for cooking. They had the sybillae sit close; Aer offered to help, having done this before, on smaller animals. Neveril had trouble keeping herself from throwing up.

After everyone had eaten, the old man - Aer didn't think he was that old,  
only middle age - talked at length. Aer recognized a few words, including "wife." The man gestured to one of the younger men, little more than a child - definitely too young to go to the Spring on their world, Aer thought -  
and motioned him to Aer. Another young man moved to face Neveril.

"Now what?" Aer asked.

"I think we're being married," Neveril guessed.

The young man tried to take Aer's wrist. Aer backed away, waving her hands.  
"No. We're not....ummm..." She fumbled with the few words she knew of the tribe's language. "We... not... women... we... child... not... give birth..."

The leader frowned. He spoke again, firmly.

"I don't think we can make him understand," Neveril said. "We may have to.  
submit to them for a while."

"No way! I'm outta here!" Aer took off away from the camp.

"Aer!" Neveril chased after her pair. Most of the dark men followed.

They nearly caught the two before the whiteness got them.

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Yeah, crude. Basic idea was to have the pair see everything for themselves.  
I realize it's equally valid, and better for some purposes, to have them meet Amuria and the other Emerald pilots straightaway and get a guided tour. If anyone else wants to do it that way, feel free. 


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

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The white faded to yellow; they were in a desert. There seemed to be nothing but sand as far as the horizon.

"What now?" Aer asked. "What just happened? Where did that come from?"

"No idea," said Neveril. "This is all new to me, too."

"The Simoun! We weren't in it! It's back on the field!" She looked around desperately, but there was no sign their ride had come with them. "Awww, great! What do we do now?"

"We'll just have to be patient. Hopefully we'll find some clues to what's going on."

"Well, we're in the middle of a desert with no water and little food. No idea which way to the nearest people, if there are even any here. And we have to get around on foot!"

They checked the compass and decided to head north. They were only walking for ten minutes when the whiteness came again.

This time they were in a temperate forest; the air was cool, the trees were pine. The lone sun was high in the sky.

Aer stood still for a few seconds, starting to feel annoyed. "Should we go on? If we're just going to get bounced out of here..."

"We'll have better luck finding water here," Neveril said.

"Other than stuff in the sky, it looks a lot like our world. I'm beginning to feel let down."

"There's a lot we still haven't seen. The people here... we have to learn some local language. I'd like to know how they deal with growing up male. I hear the Argentines don't do too well, but it isn't natural for our world. Here..." She trailed off in thought. "Well, I don't like just letting things happen. Let's walk and see if we get anywhere before we get taken away again."

They walked for more than an hour. They reached the edge of the forest and found a river and mountains, where they filled their canteens. They were still wandering when the whiteness came again.

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They were standing in a field outside a town. Aer looked up. "Two suns!  
We're home again!"

"Home... for how long?" Neveril wondered.

"I think I know this town," Aer said. "It's on the southern front. I stayed here once." She moved toward the town.

"Don't be so hasty," Neveril warned. "They may turn us over to the occupation."

"They won't be any happier with the occupation than we are. At worst we can get a change of clothes and pass as civilians." That calmed Neveril, and they approached the town together.

To their surprise, there was no sign of occupation forces. The townsfolk approached, asking for blessings; Neveril gave them. They were asked if they were newly assigned to the choir stationed there; they did not deny it.

"I thought all the other choirs had been destroyed," Aer said.

"They were. Something strange is going on. We should report to the dux."

They made their way to the temple compund. The guard crisply saluted and passed them in. Three Simouns were on the grounds. It looked like a perfectly normal scene from before the war.

They went into the barracks. Neveril walked up to the duty sergeant's desk. "Excuse me...who is in charge here?" she asked.

The sergeant stood at attention and bowed. "Blessings, sybillae. The dux is out with the trainees just now. Are you reporting for duty?"

"Yes. I am sybilla Neveril, this is sybilla Aer."

The sergeant checked the papers on his desk. "Strange, we've got no word of any personnel changes. Would you wait in the day room please? I'll get the regina."

"That calendar..." Aer opinted at the bulletin board behind the sergeant. "Why keep up such an old calendar?"

"Old, sybillae? It's this year's. You can see it's in use."

Neveril put her hand on Aer's shoulder. A glance tole Aer not to pursue the matter. "Okay. Well, we'll wait in the day room, then."

In the day room Aer asked, "What is it? Is that calendar important?"

"It might be." Neveril moved to the bulletin board. Aer followed, and together they examined memos, then went through the pile of recent newspapers, then magazines.

"Twenty years old!" Aer gasped. "All of it! It's like time has stopped!"

"Or like we've gone backward," Neveril said. "Think about it. We have become one with Tempus Spatium. We might actually be moving through time as well as space." She thought for a moment. "That might be what the High Priestess meant, when she told us to do it! She said it was our last chance to save Simulacrum. To win the war... warn everyone what was about to happen, what we were going to face..."

She was interrupted by a voice from outside. The duty sergeant had spotted two sybillae across the yard and called out to them.

"Sybilla Guragie! Sybilla Anubitu! Have you heard anything about some new sybillae assigned here?"

Aer's eyes went so wide they nearly popped out of their sockets. The pair rushed to the window, where they saw the sergeant meeting with two familiar figures in the yard.

"That's...it's THEM!" Aer choked out the words. "C'mon!" She rushed for the door.

And ran straight into whiteness.

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"OH! COME ON!!! That is sooooo unfair! It was THEM! There's no mistake! It HAD to be!"

They were high on a mountainside, with a view of a town nestled in a valley below. Two suns shone above them. Aer was beside herself with rage, fists balled up, arms flailing wildly.

"Yes," Neveril said, "it was definitely them. Anubituf and Guragief when they were sybillae." She sighed and looked thoughtfully out at the sea.

"Getting yanked away like that, just when we could talk to them..."

"I would have liked to get to meet them, too," Neveril said, "but just seeing them gave us the answer we needed. We definitely went back twenty years." She considered the town below them. "I wonder when we are now...?"

"Still... to meet them, get to know them..." Aer's mind was afire with possibilites.

Neveril shook her head. "I think it would have been awkward, knowing them before they knew us. We would have had a lot of explainaing to do. Would they believe us?" She considered for a moment. "I'm reminded of an old fable of a spoiled girl who grew up to be a virtuous woman, who prayed to Tempus Spatium that she wished she could have lived her life better. At the end of her life her wish was granted, and she found herself a child again. She did much better in her studies, becoming a sybilla, a regina, and eventually a woman again. She was careful to marry the same man, in spite of her family warining he was below her station, which he hadn't been before. But she had her children at different times, and as they grew up it became clear they weren't the children she'd had before. It was hard for her to accept her new children; she always mouned her old ones, as if they were dead."

"Wow. That's harsh."

"Some priestesses use it as an inspiring tale of the sacrifices people make for God. But it's also cautionary. If we make different choices in our lives, we get different outcomes. We seem to be in that situation now."

"If we change the past, it might affect us?"

"Exactly. We should try to avoid dealing with people too much when we're in the past."

"That could be tough. We may need things." She regarded the town below. "I wonder if we're in the past now? What town is this?"

It didn't seem familiar to them. They looked around at the terrain, trying to get their bearings. "It's almost like that one town we helped with troop transporting," she said. "The mountains look the same. But it's all built up, it sprawls all over the area..."

"It seems deserted," Neveril noticed. "Maybe we can go down safely and check it out."

They made their way down to street level. Some of the buildings were of a different style, but it seemed very familiar. They examined the monument in the central plaza, with statues of soldiers before the goddess statue. The bronze statue was green with age, the inset stone lettering weathered but readable. Aer's eyes widened in shock.

"It is! This is the same town! This is a monument to that battle we fought!"

"This statue is of the troop leader," Neveril observed. "According to these dates, he lived thirty more years... the monument was last restored...a hundred and fifty years after?"

"Feels strange, to think of it being so long ago, when it's only been a few months for us." Aer looked around at the town. "Place is a ghost town now. Totally trashed. Where is everyone?"

Roofs had fallen. Doors were ajar. Windows were empty. "Dosen't look like battle damage," Neveril judged. "More like weathering. No one's been here for a very long time."

They searched around the city and its unfamiliar sprawling suburbs. The streets were full of strange-looking vehicles. Aer realized they were the sort of petroleum powered personal and family vehicles other nations used.

"All these foreign style cars..." Aer wondered. "No helical motors?"

"Look at how many there are," Neveril said. "Lots of people had cars here. There aren't so many helical motors in the world."

Store shelves were largely bare. Occasionally they found some packages made of unfamiliar materials, filled with things that might once have been food.

There were also skeletons. Some were in houses, some in the streets, many in temples and hospitals and some types of apartments. One large group lay in a circle in a park.

There seemed to be no paper surviving. Most signs were to deteriorated to read. They found a library, but were frustrated that it had no surviving records from the time of the evacuation.

They were still looking through the shelves for books that might have offered clues when they jumped again.

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They found themselves in a very familiar corridor. It sure LOOKED like the Arcus Prima. Something was wrong: the deck wasn't level. Were they under attack? There were no alarms, now voices of crewmembers at battle stations. The air was quiet. Too quiet.

Deathly quiet.

"Somehwere familiar, at least," Aer said in relief. "Let's find the captain."

Neveril had noticed something on one wall. It was scratched up with what seemed to be cartoon figures. She giggled. "I think Paraietta did this..."

"Para? She was always too serious. You really think she could have done this?"

"You don't know her that well. We were friends from childhood. She had a sense of humor...she just didn't show it much. And we had so little to laugh about later..."

The ship seemed to be deserted. It was crashed in a shallow lake, with signs of having been there for years. Dust covered many surfaces; corrosion was eating away at metals.

They stopped in the ballroom to rest. "What happened here?" Aer asked.

"I don't think it was shot down. More like it was scuttled. I can imagine the Governing Council not wanting Plumbum or Argentum seizing it."

Aer looked about. The phonograph and some records seemed intact. A gleam kindled in her eye. "Well, we might as well relax. Care for a dance?"

Neveril smiled. "Sounds nice."

They danced for what seemed like hours, lost in each others' gaze, until the world faded away again.

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Next: The fate of Tempest


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

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They were in a park. The roaring of the transition didn't completely fade. Aer realized it was in the environment. Like on an airship. A constant low sound of engines at a distance.

It was becoming habit to check the sky. One sun visible through the clouds. Some buildings through the trees. They seemed in good repair.

"Jackpot!" Aer said. "The other world. An actual city! Let's check it out."

Neveril didn't object: there seemed no point. "It might not hurt. We may only be here a few minutes." They began walking to the edge of the park.

The style of the buildings wasn't too far off from their own country. There were shops and pubs at street level, with signs in a strange alphabet. That same alphabet was used on newspapers, street signs, some clothing people wore. They passed poeple in animated conversation, street vendors who called to them in attempts to sell their wares, strange boxes some people carried that blared bizzare sounds - music? - with songs in the same language.

"Sounds like a different language than those dark people used," Aer said. "And they have writing, at least. I wonder how many languages we'd have to learn here?"

Neveril considered. "At least one. So that we can read their books. Then we can find a library. Maybe we can anyway, at least for maps."

"Maps are good," Aer said. "Think we can just lift stuff? If anyone chases us, we can hide until we jump out."

Neveril stopped for a moment, then continued on. "I keep forgetting you're not a priestess. We shouldn't be dishonest if we can help it. We can get what we need without abusing our freedom to move. And if there's a chance we will jump out in ten minutes theres also a chance it will take ten years."

"I sure hope it isn't that long! But I guess you have a point."

They spent more minutes walking, looking around at the city. They noted factories similar to those found in Argentum and other industrial countries. Some neighborhoods had detached housing with smaller outbuildings for housing their cars.

They eventually found what seemed to be a library. There was no door-keeper; it seemed they would be free to go in. "Should we? " Aer asked.

"It looks safe," Neveril said. "Let's get a few answers."

The librarian didn't give them a glance as they walked in and began to browse; there were other people to serve. They soon found an atlas, and started to page through. The early pages gave views of some spheres, some banded, one with rings.

"Are these their planets?" Aer asked. "Grampa showed me ours once. He had a small telescope."

They moved on to the world proper. "I suppose we will get very familiar with this map," Neveril said.

They kept looking through it for several minutes, then moved on. They searched through the magazine racks, then book stacks, looking mainly at pictures. They continued for about an hour before Neveril pulled Aer away. "It will be safer to stay on the move," she said.

They wandered around the streets for a while longer, coming across another park with a gathering of people - a flea market, Aer realized. They began moving among vendors, looking not only at wares but people.

Neveril noticed some people were looking back. "It looks like I'm attracting attention..." she wispered.

"But they can't know anything? Or do they just find you enchanting?"

"There have been a few people on the street, too. I wonder..." She trailed off in thought.

They continued to look through the wares for a few more minutes, bearing the interested gazes, until it hit Neveril. "My hair!"

"Your hair?"

"No one has this color. Look at theirs."

They stayed for a few more minutes in the market, now looking at people with a new critical eye. Finally they continued along the streets.

"They don't have as many colors as we do," Aer said.

"All shades of blond, red, brown, black," Neveril said. "White only among the old. No pink, purple, blue, or green. And their eyes. Mostly blue or brown, some gray, I saw one green, two I think were yellow. No purple or red. You fit in here, Aer. I stand out."

"Yeah.... you might want to change your hair if we have to stay here long. How about cutting it short and going brunette?"

Neveril smiled. "I'll think about it. I always tried to avoid vanity."

"This isn't vanity. This is avoiding trouble until we know how to deal with it."

"Why Aer! Maybe you're learning to think like a priestess."

Aer scoffed at that. "I just don't like being out of my depth."

A bit farther down the street they came to a building that caught their attention. "This looks almost like a temple..." Neveril said.

"Maybe it is one, to their faith," Aer said. "That cross shape is everywhere. Like our winged pillars. Their symbol of faith."

"I don't think it's dangerous to go in. Temples should be open to all," Neveril said.

They entered to a familiar scene of a house of worship, with pews to either side and an altar at the front. There were a few people praying in the pews. Aer and Neveril automatically moved to sit on the left side.

"Pray as they do," Neveril advised. Aer saw the locals had their hands clasped. They moved to copy them.

"There are some men on this side," Aer warned. "And women on the other."

"So they don't separate the sexes. Their rules."

Neveril looked up at thealtar and the cross symbol beyond. It was very large, apparently a full representation where the other crosses about the place were diminutive symbols. Neveril gasped when she examined it. "Is that man...NAILED to it?" She turned pale.

Aer looked closely at the cross with the man on it. "That's sick," she said. "Who uses a torture device as a symbol of faith? I'm not sure I want to know these people too well."

"I fell ill..." Neveril said. "Let's go."

The whiteness took them as they went through the door.

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Aer felt lighter than she was used to, like she had felt in battle when in a power dive. The chill in the air contrasted with the warm red tint over everything. It looked like a typical wilderness scene. Aer automatically shielded her eyes and looked up a the sun. One, but larger than she was used to, and distinctly red.

"This might be a different world than that other one," Aer said. "I wonder how many worlds there are... how many we might visit...?"

"I'm just glad to be away from there," Neveril said. "Let's rest a while."

After an hour they went looking around. The low gravity took some getting used to, but promised to allow them to keep walking longer before they tired. Aer tried jumping about and throwing rocks. Range didn't seem all that greater than normal.

They saw some animals, mostly small. No people. Eventually night approached and they found shelter under a cliff.

The rest lasted nearly an hour. The next jump took them to an equally strange place, with golden grass, purple sky, small bright sun, rock pillars hundreds of feet high scattered around - the closest looked to be a mile away and precariously thin - and a large banded disc in the sky with a line of white through the middle.

"Woah," Aer said. "What a sight. A planet?"

"It looks like we're on one of the moons. Maybe we should be prepare ourselves for stranger sights..."

The next hour saw them visit half a dozen worlds at ten minute intervals. all were picturesque scenes in their own way. The closest they came to danger was a desert with large crystals floating in midar, some haning in spite of being shattered. The largest worm - snake? - they had ever seen moved across the sand. They were gone before it got close.

They were relieved when they got home.

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They were on a road close to a fenced building. A sign on the fence proclaimed it an orphanage. It looked to be mid-afternoon, under two suns.

"Let's get directions," Neveril said. They approached the building and came through the gate.

A figure came to the door. All three of them stood still, staring in amazement. Then their emotions could be contained no longer, and they rushed to embrace.

"Paraietta!"

"Aer! Neveril! It's you? Really you?"

"It is! It's us! What are you doing here? How are things?"

"Come inside! Please, this is so... it's just..."

They all found it hard to express their feelings in words. Emotions whirled through the three, taking some minutes to settle down.

They seated themselves at a table and poured tea. Paraietta was the first to speak. "So... what happened to you? You performed the Emerald Ri Majon and disappeared... what did you find?"

"We found God," Neveril said simply. "But only for a moment. We were one with everything... part of Tempus Spatium... I can't really describe it, there were all kinds of sights and sounds and everything. I don't think anyone who hasn't been through it themselves can really understand."

"Part of Tempus Spatium... but you're here now. You haven't changed.  
have you?"

"No. Not yet, anyway. Maybe we're in some kind of process... there's so much we've already seen... different worlds?

"Worlds? Like the other world you once mentioned, Aer?"

"A bunch," Aer said.

"They have earth and sea and sky," Neveril said, "but they can look very different. Mostly the sky. All the one's we've seen so far have had one sun, sometimes different colors. Every world has different moons or stars. The one we've spent the most time on had people, some of them very dark, darker than any people here. And they gave birth to male AND female children."

Paraietta absorbed it all. "Sounds like you'll have a lot to tell the Council."

"The Council may have to wait," Aer said. "We haven't been in control. We may be gone tomorrow. We've sort of jumped around."

"Jumped?"

"In time AND space. We saw Guragief and Anubituf when they were sybillae! Didn't get to talk, though." Aer still felt stung by that.

"Well, if you stay here long you have to report to the Council," Paraietta said. "Everyone has wanted to know what happened with you. We need to understand the Emerald better."

"If we stay, yes," Neveril agreed, privately doubting Tempus Spatium, or whatever was making them jump around, would allow it. She looked around the place, noting the calendar. "But what about you? It's been... five years, hasn't it? How is everyone? You seem to be doing well."

Paraietta seemed to relax more. "I think I've found a niche here. The war made a lot of orphans. Someone has to take care of them."

"You don't regret becoming a woman?"

"Not yet. You know I always wanted to be a man for you. Once I accepted that I couldn't have you, it didn't seem to matter what I was. We all grow up with lessons about good and bad reasons to choose, stories of people who chose for bad reasons, or let it be random, and regretted it. You resolve not to let it happen to you, but somehow it does. Things happen to you... you can't be ready for everything. I think if I were going to regret it, I would be by now."

Neveril nodded. Adults were often giving children advice on the most important choice they would ever make, their adult gender. Perhaps the most common was not to leave your choice until the last minute, especially if you had been heading one way for years, as Paraietta, Alty, and Floe had. Many people violated this rule when they let their choice depend on another person, a friend or lover, who was then lost or estranged. At least Roatreamon seemed to have remembered this rule.

"And Tempest? They're all fine? Happy with their choices?"

"As far as I know. I've kept in touch. Kaim... she once said she was planning to become a man, but she would have chosen opposite to whatever I did if I'd come around to her. She's come to terms with my choice, my ... destiny, as it were. She was ready to go either way, so she's comfortable as a woman.

"Alty... it always seemed to me she got a raw deal. Made to go before she was ready. She had been expecting to have more time, to be able to find a lover. War is often unfair like that, of course. I didn't expect her to adapt well. But she says she has no regrets. Last I heard Kaim and Alty were still living with their parents."

"I would have thought they'd be married. Normally they would be," Neveril said.

"Following the old expectations hasn't been so popular since the war. Things are changing in this country . More women are studying, getting jobs, putting off marriage. Men are less enthusiastic about finding wives. There's less faith in the future in general. A lot of soul-searching about what's next for us.

"Two people who did take the plunge were Waporif and Morinas. They're expecting their second child any day now."

"Morinas pregnant... wonders never cease," Aer said.

"Well, love is supposed to be a good reason to choose. Roatreamon also married, a family match but she says she loves him too. She actually manages this place as a hobby. A typical society wife, involved in charity. She claimed she wasn't fixed on her choice, but everyone knew she was going to be a women, and cutting her hair didn't mean she was considering otherwise. Her family certainly had no doubts.

"Vuraf and Floef... they came from provinces we lost in the settlement. That made them sore, if we hadn't lost, or if we'd given up sooner, the treaty wouldn't have been so harsh and they'd still be citizens. Now Plumbum and Argentum have fallen out and gone to war, and both Vuraf and Floef were drafted...to opposite sides."

"Oh no!" Neveril looked worried.

"Yes," Paraietta said sadly. "Floe always claimed to hate war, but was such a fierce fighter, almost like you, Aer. I thought that influenced her decision to become a man. But in her last letter she said after getting drafted she remembered she hated war and wished he had thought about that more - he would have chosen to stay female and not have to worry about fighting again."

"And Vuraf?"

"I don't think we asked her at the time but I later found that she was always planning to be male, and he's been happy with it. He said he expected to have to fight again, he just didn't expect to be fighting for another country. He said he feels a bit like a mercenary."

"If he's comfortable... good for him, I guess," Aer said.

Nevril nodded. "But we should all pray tonight for their safety. And a swift end to this war."

That Neveril could agree with. "What about Yun? Is she still Keeper of the Spring?"

"She retired recently. She used the Spring to become a woman. She's happy to be able to live a normal life."

"I'm glad for her. But now the Council will have to deal with a new chairman, won't they?"

"They will, but not right now; the Keeper is no longer the Council Chairman. Just after you left Yun announced she was restructuring the government. She said the office of Keeper should rotate regularly like all offices of state, and should be seperate from the Chairmanship. The Keeper still commands great respect and influence, the new one is one of the older High Priestesses who can manage religious affairs and deal with the Governors well, but the office is not as powerful as it once was. The Council is more balanced and self-  
governing."

"So... we're becoming an ordinary parliamentary democracy?"

"It seems we're heading that way, yes."

"That sounds messy. Things are so much simpler in a theocracy..."

Paraietta shook her head. "It wasn't simple because it was a theocracy. I've looked at a bit of history, so have the others who went to the University. There have been theocracies with politics as messy and indecisive as democracies before. What made our lives simple was having a head of state who was immortal."

"And Yun passed up the chance to be immortal. A brave thing to do."

"There was more to it than that. You didn't stay long enough to hear her explanation of why she became Keeper."

Aer was very interested in this. "Yeah, how did that happen? I mean, I can see why Onasia would want to retire when we lost the war, and the Simouns - she would have lost respect. But how was Yun chosen to replace her?"

"Because Onasia... was Dominura."

Aer expected it was a joke, though Paraietta had not been known for her humor. Nor was there humor in her eyes now. They were as serious as ever. "Onasia... was Dominura? Say what?"

Paraietta nodded. "Yun had some of the restricted archives unsealed, the ones about Onasia's early life, and the legendary sybillae of a thousand years ago. There were statues of them in there, the two sybillae. They were clearly Dominura and Rimone."

Aer was mortified. "Rimone... I flew with her. I flew with one of the legendary sybillae..."

Paraietta smiled. "You're a legend yourself now, aren't you? You did the same as they did. You say you're bouncing around in time, you may end up seeing them."

"That's right! I hope we don't jump away from them like we did from Guragief and Anubituf."

"So... Dominura and Rimone were the original sybillae..." Neveril pondered, "and then later Dominura changed her name to Onasia, and everyone forgot the names of the original sybillae? What happened to Rimone?"

"She went to the Spring, became a woman, and eventually died. Dominura went into seclusion for a hundred years after Rimone died, and after she emerged she called herself Onasia."

"She didn't choose? She let Rimone die without her?"

"Yun said that was Onasia's, or Dominura's, great sin. Refusing to choose, trying to be an eternal maiden. She said that, in her meetings with Onasia, she saw Onasia trailing sparks... maybe glowing particles of skin... like she was falling apart, fading away in spite of her will to stay in this world. She wrapped herself up to stay together. When Yun finally understood, she went to Onasia and forgave her, and that, I think, got to Onasia - it gave her the will to move on, to leave the world at last. She dissolved into a shower of sparks, in Yun's arms. And so Yun became Keeper... though not touched by sin like Onasia."

Aer and Neveril sat there for a while, absorbing what they had learned. They each wondered: Will that happen to us? How long can we avoid choosing?

***

They continued to discuss their friends and the world for a while longer before Paraietta said it was time to get ready for dinner. "You can stay the night in one fo the guest rooms," she said. "And you might want to change your clothes if you go out. Those sybillae dress uniforms will draw questions, now that we don't have Simoun sybillae anymore."

They went to the guest room and prepared to take showers. "She's right," Neveril said. "It would be a good idea to get civilian clothes. One of these days we may find ourselves in the middle of one of our neighbors."

Aer shuddered at the thought. "Maybe during the war, too," she said. "I don't want to be shot as a spy. We'll have to brush up on foreign languages." She then remembered the main other world they had seen. "And our hair. We're too recognizable now. If we want to go incognito we should get new colors and styles. Think I'll go brown. You should get something that will fit on the other world."

"And what if we have to spend a week on a world where everyone has green hair? Should we carry a full pack of hair dyes?"

"Aaaggghhh!" Aer put a hand to her forehead. "There's only so much we can do, ya know?" Another thought occurred to her. "What about names? If we're in disguise and anyone asks?"

Neveril considered that. "Maybe some common names. How does Ralla sound for me?"

Aer pursed her lips. "Mmmm...sounds more like one for me. You...seem more like a Seradra, I think, or an Arle, or something..."

Neveril nodded. "Seradra. Names should be good enough if we don't have to pass checkpoints, or can avoid police. But we'll have to practice other languages. How's your Argentine?"

Aer shook her head. "Not a word. Maybe we can go to a bookstore tomorrow and buy a phrase book."

Paraietta was able to get them some spare clothing, nondescript-looking peasant garb. After showers and dinner they retreated to their room, unsure of whether it was safe to talk with the children.

"I want to go into town," Aer said. "I want to see for myself what things look like."

"That wouldn't be wise. It's only been five years. Too many people know us. Me espescially. My picture has been in papers. Probably yours too by now, if you had one taken." Most Simulacrans, up to their time, had not been photographed; other than the Simouns, Simulacrum had less modern technology than other nations.

Aer looked frustrated. "Well, if we go to sleep here there's no telling where we'll wake up." She looked at Neveril's face with a critical eye for a moment. "We should still change our hair. Cut it short, color it. It isn't our faces that stand out so much."

Nevril looked in a mirror. "Maybe it is time for a change. How would I look with bangs?"

They spent some time considering different looks before going to bed. Aer found she couldn't get to sleep. She kept thinking about what they had learned. One question she jsut had to ask if she was to get any peace.

"Neveril... will what happened to Onasia happen to us? If we wait too long to choose..."

Neveril was silent for a minute. Then, "Onasia lived for centuries because she didn't choose. Rimone could have too. They had to have grown apart. If they hadn't ... if Dominura had found the courage to accept her fate, and stay with Rimone..."

Now Aer was silent for a few minutes as she thought. Then she got out of her bed and went to Neveril's, lying down next to her above the covers.

"I won't desert you," Aer said. "I'll raise children with you. I'll bear them if you want to be the father. I'll grow old with you. Or if you want to live a thousand years, I'll spend them with you. Whatever you decide..."

"We'll decide it together. Whatever our future is, we'll find it together."

They slept soundly after that.

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Next: The Dead Age


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

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They were awakened by a whistle. Aer noticed they had indeed jumped in the night: they were in a field along a roadside.

The whistle had come from a band of people making their way along the road. "You there!" one of them called. "Heading for Gorodron?"

The pair looked at each other for a moment, then headed to join the group. "How far?"

"Couple of days. I'm Zashie. You?" The girl looked to be about twelve, with short green hair.

"Ralla." "Seradra."

"Are you grown-ups? Gonna get married?" She seemed an excitable type.

"We haven't been to the Spring yet," Neveril said.

The child proved to be a chatterbox. Aer was relieved when they could get away from her for a whisper. "Do you know where this Gorodron is?"

"Never heard of it," Neveril said.

"Well, she likes to talk..." Aer moved back up to Zashie. "So, what are you going to be doing in Gorodron?"

"The mill, silly! Same as you. Or were you going farther?"

"We were... considering it."

"Oh, comon, stay with us! We can learn Argentine together!"

"Uhhmmm, yeah." Aer was suddenly apprehensive. Why would they be learning Argentine, unless...?

The next hill they crested gave them their answer. There was a sign along the road...written in Argentine. "I guess we know where Gorodron is," Aer whispered to Neveril.

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Zashie was very helpful, if at times annoying. Through her, Aer and Neveril learned much about their situation.

The band had come from a small villiage they both knew. They had taken ship to Argentum in hopes of a better life, following rumors of good jobs. They both wondered why anyone would want to work in a polluted Argentine town when life was perfectly fine in Simulacrum.

Aer wondered why their clothign seemed so primitive. Zashie wondered why the pair wore such fine dresses. Both seemed to think their clothes were ordinary.

"Is their villiage really poor?" Aer whispered to Neveril.

Neveril did something unexpected. She asked, "Are the Argentines taking a lot of Simulacrans these days?"

"Lots!" Zashie said. "The King said anyone can come!"

Aer's face went blank. "We've gone back..." she wispered.

Neveril nodded. "Pre-Revolution." Fifty years or more.

They kept Zashie busy with small talk and word games until nightfall. As they settled down to dinner Neveril began talking with the adults about their situation. By the time they went to sleep they knew they had gone back two hundred years.

"That's a long time," Aer said softly. "I wish we could stay longer."

"You want to work in a mill? We don't have our Simoun to just fly on a sightseeing tour the the nations of this time."

"You're right," Aer sighed. "Well, it dosen't matter. Another day, another world, another time."

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She was wrong this time. They were pleasantly surprised to find they were still with the migrants the next day. And the next week. And the next month.

Gorodron was cleaner than Aer had imagined. There was construction being done; the town was expanding. Mills handled lumber from upriver, coal and minerals were being mined in the region. It was the beginning of the Argentine industrial revolution. Things would get dirty later on.

And Argentum wasn't at war with Simulacrum. They wanted Simouns, everyone still did, but they couldn't imagine getting them by military force at this time. No one had the weapons. The choirs knew too many standoff-range Ri Majons.

As Zashie had said, they learned Argentine together. Most of the migrant labor learned just enough to understand the foremen. Aer and Neveril kept studying,  
hoping to get conversational. They knew they would likely have to do this with a number of other languages if they were to keep their heads down in other countries.

They both cut their hair very short. This was partly practical; they were working now. There were no proper dyes in this era; they could use grease to blacken their hair temporarily, if they were desperate. Right now they were under no pressure.

Three months along, they were wondering if they were truly stuck. One of their co-workers, a man in his thirties, approached them.

"Umm... Ralla, Seradra... I have to ask... I mean, some of us were wondering..."

"You want a date?" Aer guessed. It seemed written all over his face.

The man stared. "A... date?"

Neveril quickly stepped in. "You want to treat us to a meal? At the inn?"

"Well, more than that, actually... we want to know when you will go to the Spring. I mean, the Argentum one is a week from here..."

"We just turned 16," Aer said automatically. She hoped they wouldn't have to stay that long.

"Ahhh... so you have a while yet..." The man looked crestfallen. "Well, this weekend, you know, a bunch of us are going to get together and..."

"Sure," Aer said. "We're free."

"Great!" He trotted off to tell his friends.

"You know what they'll want to do," Neveril said. "In other countries, unattatched teens like us are considered fair game for sex, even if they haven't gone to the Spring."

"If he tries anything I'll give him a black eye."

"And what about...us?"

"This isn't about us. We'll always have each other. I just don't want to raise suspicions. And I REALLY hope we go soon."

As it happened, they didn't make the weekend gathering.

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Cold. Freezing cold. It took some time to realize the whiteness over their vision had stopped; there was too much whiteness over the land and sky.

They had landed in the middle of winter. Their peasant clothes were not enough to stay warm. There was a road nearby; they began to run.

Bare trees and shrubs broke the whiteness. They ran to keep warm, hoping to find a house soon.

A low buzz rose from the overcast sky. They looked up and saw a flight of aircraft approaching. Monoplanes, front-mounted engines, cockpit on top. The propellers seemed to be spinning unusually fast. The underside was hard to see against the clouds, painted some light color. Above was olive drab. As they passed overhead they noticed a logo on the side.

The pair began running again as the planes disappeared in the distance. "A red star. Do you know anyone who uses that?" Aer asked.

"I'm sure no one we know," Neveril said.

"Looked almost like Southern designs... but we'd have to be in Plumbum.  
could they - "

She stopped as they crested a ridge and saw something dark on the road. "Some kind of tank," Neveril said. "Hide!"

After a minute they noticed the tank wasn't moving. They crept toward it, hoping it was on their side.

Whose side it was on didn't matter; it was a burned out hulk. Aer pointed to a couple of logos on the sides: a black cross in a white one, another cross with bent arms. "Someone else? Red Star's enemy?" Aer asked.

"Possibly." Neveril looked around. There were a number of frozen bodies lying about, some in overcoats. "We can get something to help keep warm..."

"Nothing for it..." Aer said. They both took overcoats, gloves, hats. That warmed them up enough to walk and regain their strength. They kept moving down the road.

"I hope we don't get caught by the wrong side," Aer said. "Wouldn't want to be taken prisoner."

"You were once, weren't you? You mentioned you and Rimone once talked with an Argentine."

"Ahhh.... yeah, was sorta hoping you'd forgot about that. He had set up some metal plates and tubing to look like a Simoun. We thought it was someone in trouble, came down to investigate." She felt embarassed now, but kept on. "He tied us up, asked us how to fly, didn't like it when I told him it was impossible for him. He told us about their way, using drugs and surgery to choose childrens' genders for them at birth. Looked to me like it dosen't work out too well. He was real sick, in fact he died before we could fight him. Right in the auriga seat." She made a face. "I had to cut his fingers off the controls."

"Ugh. I could never do that. But I wouldn't be in that spot in the first place. This was one of your early unauthorized flights?"

"Yeah, it was the reason I stopped."

"You shouldn't have to learn things the hard way. If you'd paid more attention in class, you'd know that trick is a hundred years old."

"And they told you about the Argentines in your briefings?"

"Partly. I took some elective classes on history and cultures of other countries in training. And my father was Foreign Minister before he became Vice-Chairman. I learned early that it was good to know you neighbors."

They crested another hill and saw a farmhouse. "Finally," Aer said. "We can really warm up. Hope they have some food. We haven't had breakfast."

The house was empty, but had firewood. No food; everything of value had been taken. There were no animals outside, no grain stores.

"Well, this sucks! We're gonna have to keep going," Aer said.

"Later, when we've warmed up," Neveril said, huddling close to the fireplace.  
"Rest now."

Aer sat close to her, shoulder to shoulder. "I hope we don't have to stay another three months and learn another language."

They didn't stay three hours. They were on the road, running through the whiteness, when they jumped again.

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It was very noticeable this time. They were looking in a mirror in a public restroom. A row of toilet stalls was behind them. It was a warm contrast to the winter countryside.

"Let's see where we are," Neveril said resignedly, taking off her hat. They headed out the door.

They were in a lobby. To one side was a ticket counter; to another a food counter and two doors leading further on.

"A theater," Neveril said. "I wonder what's playing?"

"Food first," Aer said, moving up to the counter and looking at the wares. Then she checked the prices. She quickly moved back.

"Argentine writing," she wispered. "Time to put our cover to work. You didn't have any money one you when we left old Argentum, did you?"

"Nothing. It would have been old money anyway. Let's go on in."

Aer's stomach growled, but she followed Neveril in. They sat down in back.

"Where's the stage?" Aer asked.

"This... this is a motion picture theater," Neveril said. "We're going to see a movie."

"Really? Aright! I've always wanted to see one of these. Did you? Or have you?"

"There was only one of these kind of theaters in our country, in the capital," Neveril said. "Amuria and I were going to go after we retired from service..."

"You'd wait that long? Couldn't you go while you were off duty?"

Neveril chuckled. "Temple discipline is very strict. As a leader I had to set an example. Anyway, it's only a few years wait. We all knew worldly pleasures would come in time, if they mattered to you."

"I woulda snuck out."

"I bet."

The lights went down. The screen flared white, then showed a series of patterns before launching into anthemic music and images Aer guessed Argentines found patriotic. The audience all stood up; Aer and Neveril copied them.

Aer remained focussed on the screen. Flags waved, soldiers marched, airships flew, marine ships steamed, a fatherly figure glowered down on his people.

"The dictator," Neveril wispered.

"The man who beat us..." Aer's anger rose.

The opening segment ended. Everyone sat down. Another kind of anthemic music, with logo and title. Argentum News Service.

"Newsreel," Neveril said.

"The date..." Aer said. Part of the logo was the date, soon confirmed by an announcer. It was around the time Aer had arrived on the Arcus Prima... a week after Amuria was lost.

"A glorious day for our air fleet! For the first time, Simouns are shot down!"

Cheers from the crowd. Aer made a fist. Neveril put her hand on Aer's arm.

Scenes of battle, Argentine drop-fighters shooting at the hapless Chor Caput. The choir went in too close before starting their Falcon array. They destroyed several flights of drop-fighters, but were too close to evade others. The fighters had enough speed to chase a short distance, enough ceiling to follow the Simouns above the clouds. It was enough to take down five and cripple the last.

"A second choir comes to the aid of their sisters. They too are no match for Argentum's pilots!" Neveril's grip tightened. This had to be hard for her, Aer knew. She was up there now, on that screen, leading her sybillae and losing her love.

"Desperate to survive, the choir launches a dangerous Ri Majon not seen before. One of the pilots does not survive the attempt." Scenes of a huge pillar of light, similar to an Iron Ri Majon but much larger, waves of destruction pulsing outward for miles. The camera finally showed chaos as the reconnaisance plane it was mounted on was caught and lost control.

"How did they know what happened to Amuria? I wonder how many spies they have in the Temple...?" Aer whispered. Neveril said nothing.

The dictator appeared. "This battle is a great victory for our forces. We have proven the Simouns are no longer invulnerable. Their doctorine is intimidation - they show up and we run away. Now we can stand and fight. Their pilots will still think like priestesses - they will not be able to adapt and fight like soldiers. Our victory is assured!"

"Their own force was wiped out," Aer wispered.

"They could afford it. We had only twelve choirs. That force was less than one-twelfth of what we faced between all the nations," Neveril said. Aer noticed she was gazing into her lap. Trying not to look at her failure.

The newsreel continued with other events around the region, then domestic affairs. It was followed by two animated shorts with anthropomorphic animals doing silly, and often physically impossible, things. Then an advertisement.

A live-action short showed urban children, the "Downtown Boys", getting into trouble. Aer wanted to ask what a "boy" was. Her question was soon answered, when one of the "boys" insulted a more feminine child, because "you're just a GIRL! What would girls know?" Clearly "boy" was their term for a male child, one not needed two hundred years before.

The main feature started. A muscular, fair-haired young man (there was no telling the specific color, blond, pink, or some light shade of green, in a black-and-white film) helped an older white-coated scientist building a strange-looking vehicle, looking something like a very fat needle with fins on one end. The scientist claimed to have learned the secret to helical motor technology, and built one of his own to power the vehicle.

Aer had to restrain herself from laughing out loud. "C'mon! Crack the secrets of the gods? No way."

"They don't think of it that way..." Neveril said.

It was true. The dialogue had the scientist explaining how helical motors (in the Argentine view) were "space-time distortion engines" invented by ancient men from before the Great Fall. It was only a matter of time, he said, before mortals re-invented them, with or without stealing motors from the Simulacrans to study.

The young man took the craft on a series of test flights over the ocean, breaking the sound barrier, reaching mach 2.5 in level flight 1000 feet above sea level. He then took the craft into space, hundreds of miles up, and flew a forced orbit that had him pulling 10 G's, nearly making him black out.

The scientist took the opportunity to get in another dig at Simulacrum. "Everything we have done so far the Simulacrans could have done centuries ago if they'd wanted to. Their Simouns' airframes aren't aerodynamic and can't pass the sound barrier. Their cockpits aren't airtight so they have a ceiling of 100,000 feet. In the vacuum of space, their seals and locks would fail entirely and the canopies would be blown off."

Aer seethed, all the more because it was true. Every trainee learned the Simoun's limits early. It was galling to see atheists imagining that a better craft was possible.

The young man returned to home base, and after a few day's maintenance on the craft flew all the way to the moon. The scientist mentioned that they might possibly go all the way to the stars.

The mission was planned around exploration of the ancient ruins. The young man fearlessly wandered around the ruins in his vaccuum suit, finding much wreckage, and eventually got a console working, where he powered up the ruins and restored life support, sealing air leaks. Unfortunately, this also woke up some ancient people in some type of "hibernation capsules", who then took the young man prisoner. At that the movie ended on a cliffhanger.

There was an intermission. Aer and Neveril remained in their seats as people went out to the concession counter or just stretched their legs.

"I've seen those ruins," she said. "Grampa had a telescope. Some nights in the summertime we'd go out to a hill where it got very dark and we'd look up at the moon and planets and stars. He showed me the ruins, there's whole cities on our side, and he thought there were more on the far side."

"Did he know a lot about astronomy?"

"Just a hobby with him. He said a lot of stars were in pairs, like our suns, or groups of three or more. But just going by star SYSTEMS, most were singles. We've seen that for ourselves now..."

There was a second feature film. The first, apparently, was a secondary, or "B movie", feature, only 90 minutes. The true main feature, the "A movie", would be a full two hours. It was much less interesting to the two Simulacrans, a patriotic feature for the Argentines showing soldiers at war (thankfully against one of the southern nations).

One scene stood out to them, of a protagonist's wife giving birth. The girl was turned into a "boy" as demanded by a state-devised schedule.

"Not only don't they get any say in what they'll be," Aer said, "even the parents don't get any."

The mother did try to protest, but a doctor calmly explained that an even gender balance had to be maintaned. Other countries, allowing their citizens to choose their own gender on reaching their late teens - anywhere from 15 to 20, depending on the country - suffered fluctuations in their gender balances as one or the other became more popular or desired. He even showed a graph of some countries' gender balances over the past four centuries. Aer noted Simulacrum had gone as low as 35% male and as high as 70% over that time. Other graphs showed how this had in turn affected population levels, causing occasional shrinkage or rapid growth, both of which posed difficulties. The Argentine Plan, the doctor concluded, ensured moderate growth and economic stability - Argentum was prospering as other countries were going though a depression.

The film followed the protagonist through a major, and probably invented, battle, which of course they won, at some cost. Aer found it almost enjoyable.

"If only they had been ours," she wispered to Neveril.

Neveril seemed down. "The films our theater showed... I think they were all foreign. We didn't have a film industry. I wonder if we do in five years...?"

They went out the rear exits, and vanished into whiteness.

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Their cold-weather outfits were still useful. They were high on a mountain. The slope was strangely even, a straight line to either side, a continuous grade before and behind. It seemed mostly made of gravel. Their own two suns shone brightly.

"Almost like a dirt pile," Aer said. She looke out over nearby ranges. "Them too. Too regular. I don't know any mountains like these."

"Let's see what's at the top," Neveril ventured. It wasn't far, only a few mintues' walk, leaving them mildly winded.

The mountain was topped with a plateau. Hard, dark granite tiles made the ground, with some kind of white stone farther on, in distinct shapes. They approached the nearest formation.

It was a giant letter, a hundred feet long and wide. They looked around at the large letters, stretching away for what looked to be several square miles.

"Let's read it," Aer said, moving to the next letter. They worked their way across the row, then the next, assembling the message.

IN MEMORY OF OUR SPECIES

WE TRIED AND FAILED

GODS FORGIVE US

"No way! EVERYONE is dead?" Aer couldn't believe it. It just wasn't possible.

"All the people...what could have happened? How can a whole world die?" Neveril sank to her knees, at first in shock, then after a few moments crossed her arms in prayer.

Aer wasn't much for praying, but she joined in.

A few minutes later, the whiteness took them away.

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Next: The Last Woman In The World


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5:

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

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They were in a back alley in a city. Neveril was still shaking.

"That's our future? We all die?" she wondered.

"Maybe it's the same time as those empty cities," Aer guessed. "That's what happened. They killed each other off!"

Neveril shook her head. "No. I refuse to believe that's where we are headed. The High Priestess thought we could change the past. But we know we can always change the future. We MUST change it..."

"Where are we?" Aer looked around. "Wherever it is, it stinks."

There was a single sun high in the sky. They headed out to the street. There was a bazaar, many animals, people mostly dark-skinned. No sign of modern technology, though that didn't necessarily mean anything.

Their stay lasted until nightfall. The local temples had tall towers, almost like watch towers, which men a couple of times during the day called some long ritual message from. The people on the street responded by turning in one direction and kneeling to pray. Aer and Neveril tried to follow them.

Shortly after sunset they jumped again, this time to a tropical island on their own world. There seemed to be no one there. It was nearing sunsdown, but the pair was grateful for the chance to gather fruit they knew they could eat.

"We have got to get some kind of money," Aer said. "Maybe if we visit one of those dead times again... there have to be coins lying around."

"It's going to be the same problem everywhere we go. People won't take just any coins, and some kinds will have them asking questions."

"All the same... when we get a chance I'm getting a wallet and start collecting every kind of coin we can carry."

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A few jumps later, through what seemed to be random times and places, they started getting answers.

It seemed like a normal town. Aer soon noticed it was deserted and run down, but with the late model cars and buildings they knew marked the Dead Future. They found a few old coins in what seemed to be hobbyist's collections. They considered filing off some dates, if they had to be spent in the past.

They wandered around the area looking for signs of people. Neveril noticed something on a hillside outside of town - a half-constructed building.

"I think I see something moving," she said. "Let's go look."

As they got closer they could see it was indeed a person hauling large bricks and blocks around, trying to finish the building.

"Helloooo!" Aer called.

The figure dropped its rock, startled. It turned around and looked in amazement.

The pair made their way up to the person. They were wrapped in linen from head to toe, much like Onasia had been. As they approached, they both gasped - the unknown figure looked much like Onasia: pale, almost glowing skin, young features, but eyes that had seen lifetimes.

The figure laughed, a high feminine laugh. "So, I'm not alone after all! Come up, you two. Where are you from?"

The pair made their way up, getting within polite distance of the woman. "We're from..." Aer paused. How would they explain themselves? What could they reveal?

"Don't be shy. It's not like there's anyone to keep secrets from anymore, is there? What are your names? I don't recall anyone like you..."

"I'm...Ralla, this is Seradra. We, umm... just got here... from the capitol..."

The woman looked at them strangely. "You can't lie to me. You don't look old enough. Where are you from, really? And your real names? I'm Gazoushie, in case you don't know. Which you should."

"And why should we know?" Neveril asked.

"Because until just now I thought I was the last person alive. These last two hundred years everyone in the world has known everyone else. I've watched them all die, all the other people. I'm all that's left. And you aren't a hundred years old. Nowhere near." She gave them that strange look again. "Although there is something about you..."

"You never chose?" Aer asked. "Never went to the Spring?"

"I never had the chance. I would have loved to be a man! But I had the bad luck to be born into a dying world."

"We've been here a few times already," Neveril said. "This world is empty, dying? Why? What happened? A war?"

"Oh yes. Too many wars. We could recover from losing people, but not from losing the Springs."

"The Springs!? How could they be...lost?"

"Closed off. There's only one actual spring, of course, held in a pocket universe with a shifting wormhole access tunnel. So there are many tunnels to it at any one time. If there were only one, there could be only one nation - they could restrict access to their people and let all other nations die out."

"But how do you close off the Spring?"

"Not sure myself. Some entrances they blew up, I know, but those could be dug out again. Probably had to do with the wormholes."

Aer shook her head. "I don't understand any of this talk of 'wormholes' or 'pocket universes'. But if the Springs could be cut off...I mean, WHY? It's suicide. Who would do it?"

"You should know who. You fought them."

"Argentum? Why?"

Neveril considered this. "That movie we saw, Aer. The one doctor said all other higher animals bore male and female young... only humans were different. And he said our arrangement had to be artificial. Unnatural."

"Yeah, their propaganda. Making a more natural human race... but destroying the tunnels to the Spring?"

"The had closed their own tunnel in your time," Gazoushie said. "They eventually closed all the others. After that it was their way, or extinction.  
But their way didn't work; they didn't last as long as we eternal maidens have. That was one thing they wanted from the helical motors. They had hoped they might have the key to stalibzing their processes, allowing them to be fully healthy.  
They were barking up the wrong tree, of course."

"So they died out, and the people who didn't let their daughters be subjected to their treatments lived on... but you couldn't reopen the Spring," Neveril guessed.

"And so we dissolve, as Onasia did," Gazoushie said. "We cannot become adults and have children. And now I am the last."

They sat speechless again for a while. Finally Neveril said, "I'm sorry for your loss, your... world. But I can't believe this is how things will end. Wasn't there any other way?"

"There's always another way. If the last helical motors hadn't been destroyed in the wars, we would have built new Simouns and performed Emerald Ri Majons and gone back in time to stop the Argentines."

"But you can't do that!" Aer objected. "Then you wouldn't exist."

Gazoushie nodded. "A paradox, they call that sort of thing. A logical conundrum, that indicates a thing is impossible. You get that a lot when you work in Time, as you can when you've performed the Emerald." She looked piercingly at the two. Aer felt as if her gaze was looking into her soul. "As you can still do. I can't unmake this world, but this world is nothing to you. It is still your future to make."

"But if we do, you will never be...?"

"I am but a ghost, as you would be ghosts to people from your own past. Nothing in your future, after you have performed the Emerald Ri Majon, is set. You are one with Tempus Spatium now, unbound by time and space. The first steps on the road to godhood. It's possible I would still exist, in some other form.  
Perhaps you can make a world where I can be a man!"

Neveril was about to thank her when they suddenly jumped out again.

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Over their next jumps they had better luck stockpiling food and money. This looked to come in handy when they landed in a modern-looking alley. On their way to the street they checked a few trash cans for a newspaper.

"Plumbish," Neveril said with a glance at the print. "I think I know where this city is. One of their industrial centers. The date... looks like a few weeks after our visit with Paraietta."

"Okay," Aer said. "At least we can get around. I hope they don't still feel sore... their sybillae may be friendly, but the rest of them - "

An air raid siren went off. The pair checked the skies. Simouns were rising from nearby bases.

"I wanna see how they do," Aer said, running off. Neveril followed her into another alley, where she made her way up a fire escape to the roof.

Several minutes later they could see Falcon and Shark Ri Majons being drawn, some very high up. A group of aircraft was moving in slowly, drawing the Simoun defenders in. As they got close, one suddenly sped up, very fast. The Simouns tried to follow but couldn't keep up. A sound like a cannon shot or bomb blast sounded.

"A sonic boom!" Neveril said. "They have supersonic aircraft!"

"Like in that movie..." Aer said.

The craft moved over the city. Aer could see their rooftop was on the outskirts. The building next door was higher, blocking a direct view of the city center. They leaned over the edge and around the corner, to see the craft move over the center, slow to subsonic, then speed up again. A few seconds later a parachute opened.

"Instrument package," Neveril guessed. "A reconnaisance flight. The other bombers..." She turned back to look at the bombers the simouns had engaged, but they had turned away as well.

Aer sighed in relief. she sad down against the wall. "They fell for it. Their sybillae got drawn off by a false raid. All so a recon mission could get through. There must be some real action going on somewhere else."

There was whiteness. At first Aer thought they were jumping again. Then she was knocked forward and blasted with heat. The noise was deafening, like a thousand bombs going off at once.

They lay flat on the roof for several minutes, riding out the blast. Eventually the light and heat and noise subsided. Aer's ears were still ringing as she got up from the roof. She looked around the corner of the wall they had been up against.

And saw Hell.

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They were in the theater again, this time already in their seats in the back row. Aer took a few seconds to realize they had jumped again.

They sat down heavily. There was no one else in the seats yet. As they sat there getting their bearings, moviegoers began filing in from the entrances.

"One bomb..." Aer said at last. "One bomb. One... BIG... bomb."

"That's it," Neveril said in a haunted voice. "That's how they closed the Springs. And shaped those mountains. They have to power...of gods..."

They sat their, decompressing, until the lights went down. They barely remembered to stand with the audience for the patriotic reel.

The newsreel was dated days after the bombing. It got straight to the point.

"And now, a word from our Beloved Leader."

"Peoples of Argentum, I announce to you the greatest scientific breakthrough in history. We have mastered the power of the atom. After years of secret research our scinetists have perfected the means of unleashing atomic energy as a weapon of unprecedented power. The new 'atomic bomb' has the power of thousands of ordinary bombs. We have used one against Plumbum, to destroy the city of Hokoshen. Plumbum had been warned of our abilities but foolishly decided to disbelieve us. They shall believe us now when we say we have the power to destroy them utterly. This war, so recently begun, is already at an end. The most destructive known Ri Majon the Plumbish can produce pales in comparison. From now on the might of Argentum will be unopposed!"

Film of the blast taken from the retreating bomber was shown. This time Aer also averted her gaze, not wishing to look at that awful cloud again.

Instead of the usual regional and national events, the rest of the newsreel explained about the nature of atomic power and the prospect for use in electricity generation. The pair sat silently through this and the rest of the matinee, absorbing everything. Afterwards, neither of them could even say what the movies had been about.

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Next: Consulting the Crystals


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6:

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

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Several weeks' worth of jumps later they landed near the Temple for the first time. The capitol city looked much different, with many electric signs and lights. More than could be sustained by the few helical motors Neveril knew were dedicated to that purpose.

"You think they have some of those atomic power plants?" Aer asked.

"Possibly," Neveril said, scanning the area around the bay. There were several new buildings, but nothing that looked like a power plant.

The day's newspaper claimed it was now 20 years after the time they had performed the Emerald Ri Majon - what they thought of as their home time. Long enough, Aer guessed, that people might have forgotten them.

They walked the streets, entering the shopping district. As far as they could tell, no one recognized them - their hair was shorter and differently styled. Still, they felt they could take advantage of the chance to do better. They found a hair salon and got new cuts and colors. Both went for a neutral brown to fit in on the primary other world they were visiting regularly.

Afterward they ate at a restaraunt; again no one gave them any glances. "I think we're doing good," Aer said.

They drifted over to the university district. "I would have been going here, with Amuria..." Neveril said. "Maybe we can both go here, if we want to settle down."

Aer didn't find that particularly exciting. "I'm not the bookish type, like Rimone. I'd rather get to work."

"Would you be happy as a farmer, like your grandfather?"

"I'd be more comfortable there, at least. But with all the places we've been I think I'd make a pretty good explorer now."

A sign caught Neveril's eye. "A seminar on Ancient culture. That picture of the Moon Ruins... they've sent people there! They must know a lot we don't now."

"Want to go in? It looks like open access."

They walked in to an auditorium packed with students and faculty. There was a woman on stage making a presentation, apparently on things learned from moon visits.

"...samples of the ice recovered from there were analyzed and found to be Spring water. This seems to be in accordance with the Boronnanif Hypothesis. The tanks containing the ice were medical apparatus used for gender selection by colonists, and was synthesized on site."

A comment from the audience. "Then the colonists did their own conversions?"

"Yes, and from an early date, it appears. Part of it was an exile community, a radical sect that did early work on the conversion process. Some of the records we've managed to recover go back before the process was even proposed."

Another voice. "Before it was proposed? Then they bore both genders?"

"Actually, a large percentage of the crystals recovered so far have yielded popular entertainments. The language is still being deciphered, but there is much imagery that indicates they had male and female children, and some of them apprear to have plots that revolve around the divide between what we have been calling the liberal and conservative factions - the conservatives, for that time period, being against adopting the Spring, or in those days I guess it would be 'Tank', method."

A third voice. "So if they used these medical tanks to choose their genders, what about the Spring? Where did it come from?"

"Nothing deciphered so far indicates anything like them. Our working hypothesis right now is that the Spring was created late in the Fall era, from which no records survive. It would be difficult to produce such a large amount of fluid, probably several years' worth of effort, unless there were something to the production process that allowed larger volumes to be produced faster, as Dr. Sandief suggests. But the real feat would have been the cavern itself, and its connecting tunnel. That would require dimension distortion technology similar in principle to the helcal motors, but structured and tuned very differently, and almost certainly taking up a huge amount of power - more than all of Daikuriku produces today."

"What are they saying?" Aer wispered. "The Argentines were RIGHT? We were a 'naturally breeding species' once?"

The presentation went on. "You might ask, why would they make such a drastic change? How would it have overcome conservative resistance? It would be a very radical change, on the order of what Argentum is doing. There must have been strong incentives for it. In fact the crystals of parcel 17N-E9 have been decoded to give some discussion papers on social issues, including crime and women's rights. The figures indicate violent crime was endemic, even in relatively peaceful times, and the crime of rape particularly widespread compared to today."

A succession of new images was projected on the screen behind her: graphs indicating crime levels over a period of what seemed to be centuries, with the numbers of the centuries being in the thousands of years - much longer than the time since the First Sybillae. The presenter explained them one by one.

"Tempus spatium..." Neveril said softly. "Those levels..."

"How did they even survive?" Aer wondered. "Did they have ANY self-control?"

Many in the audience were reacting similarly. The presenter addressed the point. "These levels seem dysfunctional to us," she said, "and their gender relations have struck some of the researchers as, quote, 'just short of open war'. We are very much interested in finding more literature on these 'women's rights issues' or 'feminine issues', as it may show their gender psychology and attitudes. But these later-era figures, after the institution of the 'Tank' method of reproducing, show levels approaching what we see today..." The graphs changed to show much lower levels of crime and social tension.

"The results so far seem clear: the 'Tank' method, which was later instituted on a large scale as our Spring, was the greatest gift the Ancients gave to us. It gave us a world much more peaceful than theirs, and with much better treatment of women. After the Fall at the latest, there have been no naturally reproducing people left - all have been modern types, producing only female children."

The presentation lasted into the night, often getting very technical and leaving Aer and Neveril wondering what language they were speaking. Many issues of technology and arcaeology were touched on which seemed very dry.

By the time they left, the pairs' heads were spinning. They freshened up at a restroom and headed to find a place to eat. "I hope our money's good here," Neveril said.

"And that we have enough of it," Aer chimed in.

As it happened, they didn't need any money. Their next jump came, and took them to a tropical island where they had to hunt for dinner.

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Four days later they landed in another back alley. This one looked similar to some they had seen in the better eras of the other world. There was the same dull roar of a car-infested city... but also with the whine of helical motors nearby.

They emerged onto a main street and gawked. Some of the towers had to be half a mile high. Many seemed to be made of glass and steel. At street level glowing signs were everywhere; there were images of light just HANGING in the air - what those were exactly, Aer couldn't guess.

And there were cars. Some were on the street, riding on rubber wheels, as the cars of the other world did, and the cars from the Later Age of their own world. But what really drew their attention were the vehicles that flew in the canyon-like street.

There were many designs, using anywhere from one to as many as eight normal-sized helical motors. Some looked almost like flying houses. Higher above, well over the tops of the towers, large ships moved, some of the same design as their own era with single ship-sized motors, some monsters with two.

"Fantastic..." Aer breathed. "What world is this? I wanna stay here a while."

"It may be ours," Neveril said, pointing up. "That tower."

"What about it?"

"The reflection. Two suns."

"A-ha. Can this be the time just before the world dies? Maybe this is our chance to save it!"

"If we want to save it, we need to know a lot about where to go and what to do.  
Let's find a library."

As they walked along the street, they heard people speaking from somewhere. Aer looked around but saw no one talking. She tried listening for where the voices were coming from, and realized they were coming from some of the shops. She thought of the voice boxes she had heard on the other world. "Machine voices..."

"Try not to draw too much attention, Aer," Neveril reminded her.

Neither of them could help it at times. They kept stopping to look at flat screens and solid-light formations, trying make sense of everything.

"The language is strange," Aer said. "It's like I almost recognize it, but the accent is strange, and they use a lot of words I've never heard."

"Language changes over time. I'm sure theirs has grown."

They saw a man buy a trinket from a street vendor manning a cart. Instead of handing the vendor coins or bills, he presented a crystal which he fitted briefly into a socket on a device the vendor kept on herself.

"Great," Aer said. "So much for money. How do we get one of those crystals?"

"We're not stealing one," Neveril declared.

"I wasn't even thinking it!"

They wandered for at least two hours, taking in the sights. One flat-screen showed an image with lots of text, including streaming letters and symbols along the bottom. Aer guessed it was like a newsreel. One of the stories showed what had to be a flying city, with all sorts of low tower buildings, held up by twelve large-ship-sized motors.

Other images showed scenes of space. Aer wondered how many were real and how many fanciful. They showed very large ships with many kinds of motor arrangements flying between planets and even stars. Some images showed Ri Majons being done, including some the pair recognized.

They eventually found a large bulding with book images carved in stone on it. "I guess this is a library," Neveril said. "Let's see if they'll let us in."

There was someone standing near the door with a gun at his hip. He gave them a cursory glance. The librarians didn't question them. They were apparently free to look around.

They went to the nearest stacks, but found no books, only boxes of crystals. They took one at random to a device on a table that looked similar to the one the street vendor had. "Which way goes in?" Aer wondered.

The crystal proved to be slightly conical. Only the smaller end fit in. A solid light formation appeared, showing a scene.

"Is there anything that shows a page like a book?" Aer asked. "I'm going to look around."

There turned out to be regular books on the second floor. Some of the crystals also displayed page-like images they had to use reader controls to work through. Some only showed blue images. "I think it's an error message," Neveril said after getting several of these. "It's the wrong type of crystal."

Neveril was still patiently trying to figure out the system of classification for the crystals, to find a history section, when Aer came up in excitement. You've got to try this!" she said.

'This' was a chair with a helmet, also with a crystal reader. Neveril sat in it and quickly found she could see the contents of the crystal directly laid over her vision. She heard sound form no particular place, almost as if it were her own thoughts.

"This could be helpful," she decided. "I think I may know where a language section is. Let me try something..." She fetched a crystal, sat back down under the helmet, and put the crystal in the reader.

Aer waited patiently for some minutes. "Well? How is it?"

Neveril shut the machine off. "I think we should stay here until the library closes," she said. "I felt like I was just absorbing the language. Like it was going directly into my head."

It was true. When Aer tried it some words seemed to become clearer immediately. They sat down side by side in two chairs and let the machines teach them what seemed to be the language they had heard on the street.

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The crystal played for hours. By the time a librarian came around to tell them closing time was soon, they were both woozy.

Aer didn't even want to say anything. She wasn't sure of her ability to speak any language just now; she felt very fatigued. It was something like when they had leared Argentine, but more intense. She staggered out onto the street with Neveril.

They couldn't muster up the ability to talk that night. Snatches of advertising jingles and news reports and songs from all the machines on the street almost seemed to make sense. The signs no longer seemed strange, but not entirely familiar, either. It was... dreamy, Aer wanted to think.

They jumped to a quiet countryside, just after sunset. There was a farmhouse nearby, which proved to be deserted - possibly the Final Age. They collapsed in each other's arms and were soon fast asleep.

The next morning they awoke with splitting headaches. They ate sparingly from the food in their packs and tried to ride out the pain. Aer resolved to get some aspirin the next time they landed near a drug store they had good money for.

They stayed for a full day. When they woke up the next day, feeling very refreshed, they found they had jumped again. A different city, but seeming to be in the same time. The speech and images and signs on the street were now a little more understandable.

"I think those language crystals are meant to be part of a university course," Neveril guessed. "Students are supposed to take them for weeks."

"I don't want to go through that for a whole week," Aer said. "One day was hard enough."

"Maybe only one hour. We might recover faster."

They tried it, finding the local library and using the chairs for one hour. They then left and drifted along the street for a while, trying to figure out how to get a money-crystal.

"I imagine we have to put in an application somewhere," Neveril surmised. "At a bank, or a state agency. But they would want records."

"Well, I don't see how we avoid that without dealing with gangs," Aer said.  
"Which means learning more of their language."

"So we have to live on our stores and sleep in alleys," Neveril said. "How long?"

"Four days of food. And I'm going to want baths. I don't see any secluded rivers around here."

"Do you want to try another all-day session? There's no guarantee we'll jump out just because it's hard on us."

Aer considered. "Let's find someplace out of sight to sleep first. We might be able to steal some water to bathe with."

This plan worked. They tried deciphering the instructions on the box the crystals came in, and found they could safely push themselves three hours a day before fatigue would require they skip days. They were also not supposed to go on to new lessons, but keep going over the same lessons for several days for reinforcement.

On the fourth day, with their food gone, they were able to understand many of the messages they saw and heard on the street. At the library, instead of going straight to the language crystal, they tried going for histories.

the maps in the history crystals were familiar, but the events were totally unknown. There were over five thousand years of recorded history, none of it looking like their era.

After going over a section of general history that covered the industrial technology similar to their own era, Aer noticed Neveril was shaking. "What is it? You're trembling like a leaf."

"I think I know when we are, Aer. This is the time of the Ancients. Before the Fall."

Aer went to another crystal, one dealing with astronomy and space. There were articles the settlements on the moon and other planets, on ships in use, on interstellar missions, none of which had reported back yet. She looked at others dealing with medicine and biology, trying to find anything about tanks. Medical tanks were in use to heal injuries, and for 'bioengineering', but Aer didn't know enough words yet.

They went ahead with their planned language session for the day, then left. On the street, they were understanding everything better; they could tell what was advertisement, what was news, what was fiction. They stopped near a cafe with news showing on large flat-screens.

"That woman," Aer said, indicating one screen. "I think she may be talking about the tanks..."

"Some kind of political discussion," Neveril said. They couldn't follow all the words, but it seemed as if they were discussing the merits of a society with all female children. One woman was advocating for widespread adoption of conversion to 'newtypes'. A man labelled as conservative said it was a radical idea and predicted it would lead to disaster if too many people adopted it; he was shouting and gesticulating, forcefully demanding the newtype process be outlawed. Three commentators labelled as moderates were also against the newtypes, painting a picture of the newtype supporters and advocates as a cult. They dismissed its prospects for ever gaining wide acceptance.

"If only they knew..." Aer said with a smile.

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AN: I know, this should have more WAFFy stuff, which I'm weak at. Really, a guy like me shouldn't be writing in a romance-angst anime like Simoun But I haven't seen anyone else attempting a post-series treatment exploring the world of Daikuriku, and I just had to put some ideass out there...

Next: The Fall


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7:

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

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They jumped out before getting too hungry. They landed in midday on a hot grassy plain under one sun.

Some of the animals looked familiar to Aer. "Hey! Is this the place we first landed?"

Neveril looked around. "Possibly. I wonder if our Simoun is still around."

They didn't see it, but the pattern of trees around them didn't look entirely familiar. A troubling thought occured to Neveril. "We may have come a thousand years after we landed. The Simoun would be a pile of rust!"

Aer shuddered. "I hope not. Let's get running. Maybe this way..." She started to jog.

They were soon forced to remove their outer clothes. After about an hour Aer began to feel as if she recognized some trees. A band of green in the distance seemed like it might be...

"There!" she shouted. "Near the jungle!" She pointed to a bright shape that might have been a boulder. But as they neared, they saw the gleam of the sun off the cockpit glass.

They were winded as they ran up to it. Aer threw herself against the Simoun, hugging it as a lost friend. Neveril simply put her hand on the wing.

"Dosen't look like it's been here long," Aer said. "Nothing's grown over it."

Neveril suddenly looked out toward the plain. "Aer! The tribe!"

Aer looked. Several dark figures were approaching, spears in hand.

"I hope they aren't too sore about us taking off like that..."

"We don't want to stick around and find out."

They looked at each other. Kissed. Climbed into their seats. Kissed the gem.

Canopies sealed. The controls powered up. Aer felt the motors beginning to turn over. Outside, the dark men were running up. Within spear throwing range, they stopped as the sound of the motors rose.

Aer wasted no time. She took them up, well out of sight. "The looks on their faces..." She laughed.

"Set up for an Emerald," Neveril said, summoning the pattern in the gem.

"Can't we stay a little while? I want to see if there's any civilization around."

Neveril considered. "We still need food."

"How about we find a lake or ocean and I fish? You stay in here in case we jump."

"That might work. Okay, rise to ceiling and north at top speed."

The landscape spread out before them as they soared. At a hundred thousand feet they levelled out and drove north. "There's an ocean to the east," Neveril said. "Head that way."

It took over an hour to reach. They didn't jump while Aer fished and cooked. They thought it was the best meal they had ever eaten.

They continued up the coast until nightfall. By then they could see the coast was starting to curve to the east. They discussed staying the night.

"If we do another Emerald, where will we end up?" Aer asked. "Will that just be another random jump? I want to find a way to control our movement."

"So do I," Neveril said. "But I think it may take getting into close contact with Tempus Spatium again. We got a lot of impressions last time. If we can get more experience with that, we might learn to focus on something. We might be able to pull something out of the mess."

"Hmmm... I guess you're right. It's getting dark down below. I don't see lights from cities or anything." She turned downward, diving to thirty thousand feet.

Neveril set up the Emerald pattern again. Aer moved into the turns, now so familiar, reaching for God.

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The chaos still banished thought at first, but Aer knew it when she began to recover this time. She tried to sort through the impressions. She had no real idea what she was doing, just flailing around wildly, feeling her way reality.

*Aer...*

Thoughts, not her own. They felt like... Neveril? Aer tried finding the direction, reached back. *Neveril?*

*Aer...* More fumbling, an eternity of reaching, of contact. They grew closer, but didn't quite merge. Aer remained herself.

She looked outward again. She tried to feel her body, order her perceptions. She felt strange sensations, as if she had extra limbs. She tried to work them, push back against the chaos. This had some effect.

*Aer... I feel... a place... a knot... a center..." Neveril sent.

*Where?* She reached for Neveril again, got close. She knew what Neveril was concentrating on, one of a thousand different way to see, one of the ways Aer had thought to let wait. She looked, saw what Neveril saw.

The separated again. Aer tried to move toward the place. The lights outside the canopy dimmed, became ordered. The controls seemed responsive. Aer tried adjusting their course and speed, zooming toward their goal.

They broke through. Sky, land, two suns. They wrestled the Simoun under control. There were dark motes flying about.

"Neveril!" "Aer!" Relief. They'd made it. Now to find out where.

She looked at a dark spot. A Simoun, ancient design. The others were mostly the same, a few were other designs.

"Simouns... so many of them... there must be all twelve choirs!"

"More than that," Neveril said. "Look ahead."

The Simouns around them were heading for another group, even larger. Trails of smoke reached out from them. Aer saw others coming from the swarm on their side of the sky. The Simouns all began to dodge and weave. One of the smoke trails neared them and exploded. Shrapnel rattled off the metal skin.

"Rockets!" Aer said, diving to the deck. She looked at the movements of the other Simouns and tried to copy them. This soon became difficult as the two groups of craft mixed and began performing Ri Majons.

The sky went white. Aer felt gravity pulling he in several directions at once. The flare subsided, allowing Aer to see the sky again. The clouds were moving strangely fast. Large craft were moving across the sky at what had to be supersonic speeds.

*No... we're moving very slowly,* Aer realized. Aloud, "Neveril! They did something to time! We're slowed down!"

"Too much stress on Tempus Spatium..." Neveril said. "Let me see if I can get us unstuck."

Aer tried her own controls. They seemed to be responsive; they were able to move at their own pace, slower than the rest of the world. She drove toward what looked like a city. The sky was still brighter than she was used to, and even the ground looked blue.

There was a sudden jump. The city was no longer in sight. Things were brighter and faster than ever, but quickly slowing down. Night passed into morning, then the suns stopped in the sky.

There were more Simouns about, flying in a line, a swarm beyond them. They began to draw Ri Majon trails in a rainbow of colors. Aer tried to make sense of the pattern.

"Neveril... all those Simouns... are they drawing together?" she asked.

Neveril sounded awed. "One huge pattern... over a hundred Simouns... a thousand..."

The assembled Simouns drew a pattern with many Emeralds in it, and several others Aer knew, along with some she didn't. The overall pattern involved three toridial rings, two flat rings, two spheres, all concentric; and a chaotic mess of trail in the center that slowly became symmetrical. It was the most beautiful thing Aer had ever seen.

"Aer..." Neveril's voice came to her. "I don't think it's safe to stay here!"

"Right." Aer wanted to see what was about to happen, but Neveril was right; they were not part of the formation. There was no telling what might happen. She turned around and floored it.

Waves of light pulsed across the sky. Aer felt a vibration run through her, tugging at her consciousness. She prayed they would get to a safe distance.

She prayed there WAS a safe distance.

She blacked out.

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She came to in the chaos of the Emerald transition. They had been thrown out of Time and Space again.

"Neveril!"

"We're intact," her pair responded.

"I don't want to go near anything like that again."

"That center... it was the stress of Ri Majons, of space being twisted. I think if we focus on a smaller one like that we can arrive where a single Emerald is being done... or maybe where someone is emerging."

"Do you think we can get to Dominura and Rimone?"

"We'll need more experience. I'm going to try looking..."

They saw a point, similar to the big nexus, looking small enough to be one Simoun. Aer moved toward it.

They emerged into darkness. There was no gravity. The cockpit suddenly felt very cold. A hiss came from the edges of the canopy. After a few seconds, Aer could make out stars in the darkness, very bright and sharp.

She checked her intsruments. The altimeter was jammed at the top of its range.  
The level and compass were going haywire. Aer tried turning around... and saw a world, so close yet so far.

"We're in space! Set up another Emerald! We've got to get out of here!"

"No... there won't be time..." Neveril sounded heartbroken. "Aer... I'm sorry... I've led us here..."

"We can make it! If we start now..." Aer jammed the throttle, desperately hoping to make atmosphere. Off to one side she barely noticed a glowing ovoid.  
She paid it no mind.

They didn't get far. The seals and hinges on the canopies gave out. Aer was flung out into the blackness, spinning. She saw Neveril also flying out of her cockpit, and raged. *It isn't fair - ! We've come so far -*

She blacked out.

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Whiteness again. Numb. No sound. No feeling.

Shadows in the whiteness. Sounds, distant, muffled.

Darkness.

Thoughts in the darkness. Her thoughts? They seemed like they belonged to someone else.

Concepts. Words never known. Ache. Nothingness.

Repeated. No time. All words, all ideas. Voices. New thoughts, new language.

Dreams. Dreams of her grandfather. Dreams of her fellow sybillae, praying,  
playing, fighting.

Dreams of Neveril. Neveril laughing. Neveril eating. Dancing close. Loving on deserted islands under strange moons.

Realizations. Alive. If I'm alive, Neveril must be, too. Did we jump?

Light. Darkness. Day. Night.

Thought. Voice. Language.

A new language. Nothing she had heard before, but she knew it. Like a child.

She felt like a child again. She should. She was new to this world. This langauge.

Relax. Let it come. Flow into the distant corners of your brain.

Understand. Know.

Awake.

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The room was white. White ceiling. White lights. White walls. White floor.  
White bedding.

Bed. There were six beds across from her. Hospital beds, Aer thought. She looked around. Six on her side. Hers was second from left. The one to her left had Neveril.

Neveril was also stirring, looking around. "Aer... we were... in space...?"

"Hello," a pleasant voice announced from nowhere.

They both looked up. "Ummm... hello," Aer said, not seeing anyone. The words felt strange in her mouth, her ears, her mind.

"Please do not be alarmed. We are friendly. We have rescued you. You took some vacuum damage. We have healed you. We have taught you our language. We wish to learn from you. We wish you to learn from us."

A strange language. Stranger still that she understood it as well as her own. ""Who are you?"

A solid light image appeared before them, an ovoid of metal plates and jutting shapes. "Explorer starship Lumiere. Ten biological crew and ship intelligence." Another image, a field of stars. "We are currently in orbit above this world." An image next to the field: a sphere of blue and green. Aer recognized the continents of Daikuriku.

The globe faded after a few seconds. The starfield compressed, new stars appearing from the edge: pulling out to larger view, the star in the center highlighted. The pullout continued as individual stars merged into clouds. The clouds assumed a whirlpool pattern. The pullout stopped, their highlighted position on one side. Another highlight appeared on the other side. Another globe appeared. Aer recognized the continents of the other world. "We come from here. Planet Earth."

"Earth..." Neveril said. "Show us a flat map."

The star field vanished. The whole space in front of them showed a flat map of Earth. It matched what they had seen in the atlases they had read in the Earth library. "We have been to earth," Neveril said.

"You have? When?"

"Several different times. I don't know when, exactly. Or where. We weren't in control..."

"You do not have to go into detail now. Do you come from the world below?"

""Yes," Neveril said. "We call it Daikuriku."

"You were alone."

"Only the two of us in our craft. Have you met anyone on the surface?"

"There is no one on the surface. You are the first of your species we have seen. Your people built these?" Images in the air of ruined cities, showing signs of great age. The pair recognized the signs of the Final Age.

"There are no people like us on the planet?"

"None. Some fossil skeletons like yours. Statues. No people. Signs of war. They appear to have been destroyed."

Neveril sighed. "Then we are the last. Our people are dead."

"You escaped through time. Your entry signature. You craft has space-time engines. You are from the past."

"You know about these things?"

"We have some experience. For us the technique is restricted. You fall under a special protocol. You must be allowed on your way."

"You will not stop us?"

"We could not if we tried. You are still temporally unstable. You may be pulled away. And if your mission succeeds we will be making contact with a populated world. You cannot affect our existence, only our activities in the recent past."

A door opened. Someone in a white jumpsuit walked in. It appeared to be a woman. "Hello. I am Lieutenant Scott."

"Hello. Are you a nurse?"

"Medical officer. This is a small ship. Technically the ship dosen't need a human crew at all, but it is standard practice to include one. I can help you with therapy. You have been healing and learning our language in low gravity for three weeks. You will need your strength to return to your world."

"Our thanks to you and your ship, Lieutenant. You saved us."

The lieutenant nodded. "Let's get started, shall we?"

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They ran through some routine diagnostics and inspections. The term 'nanites' came up. "It's new to us," Aer said. "What exactly is it?"

"Nanotechnology. Miscroscopic machines. There are many kinds, for making things or for medical use. We have them in our bodies, helping to repair and maintain them. Without them, natural humans grow old and die within a hundred years, and are more fragile generally. They help ward disease and heal injuries."

"So you had to give us some? Are they still in us?"

"You already had some in you. They were not compatible with ours. Once we stablized you, you were in medical stasis for three days as we worked out a translation protocol."

"We had them?" Neveril asked. "Where would we have got them?" She looked to Aer.

Aer shrugged. "That Ancient city, maybe? Something in the water?"

"We think you may have been born with them," the lieutenant said. "They do not seem to be recent introductions to your systems. They have limited functions. They seem designed to do a specific change."

"What change?"

The lieutenant paused for a moment, as if thinking. "It may have something to do with reproduction. Your bodies appear as young women, but have no actual gender. No ovaries or full uterus formed. How does your kind reproduce? Are workers in a hive?"

Neveril shook her head. "We are born ungendered, though outwardly female. We develop secondary female characteristics in our teens. In our late teens it was our practice to bathe in a special Spring - there were several all over the world - which triggered our development into whatever gender we chose."

Scott's fact brightened. "That is somewhat unusual for a humanoid race. Our own species bears both male and female children. Our technology allows us to control our genders through our nanites. We concentrate on the new choice for several days and a changing protocol is activated. The change takes a few months, and we can change back as desired as well."

"That's awfully convenient," Aer said. "I wonder if we can change our nanites for yours. Then we wouldn't have to choose a gender."

"Some of our people change regularly. We are guessing your species implemented a default female starting gender to make a more controlled society. Some of our colonies have adopted this practice, but for most it is considered too radical.  
What we have is enough for us."

When they were finished with the checkup the lieutenant had them try standing up. They felt very weak, but were able to walk to other rooms. One room had tanks that looked familiar.

"Those tanks..." Aer said. "What are they for?"

"Regrowth, repair, some operations. You were in them when we repaired your vacuum damage. They are a nanite bath - the nanites swim into the subject's body."

"The Spring!" Neveril said. "The tanks of the ancients! That's what they were!" She looked at the lieutenant. "You said our nanites needed others to start the gender development? Would that be where we get them?"

"They could be delivered by injection, but for something like that, if it isn't built into your system as it is for us, it would probably best be introduced by a nanite bath."

The sybillae stared at each other in awe. "The Spring... that's how it works," Aer said. "Not the work of God. The Ancients..."

Neveril wasn't so sure. Her faith wasn't shaken so easily. "We don't know that. Tempus Spatium may still have had a hand in it."

Aer let the matter drop. She sensed Neveril would be sensitive about this. She would rather have Neveril's love and trust. And if it were true, Neveril would need someone to lean on when she faced the truth.

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They underwent three days of therapy, walking quickly, then dealing with stronger gravity. They also learned something of Earth: regional names, their dating system, an overview of history.

The ship explained the Earth had developed star travel, with ships moving faster than light, late in the age of what it called Western civilization.  
As this civilization collapsed, many 'exiles' fled the system for distant stars. There followed a thousand-year period in which Earth's technology was much lower than its peak; Aer and Neveril understood this as similar to their own post-Fall world. Recent centuries had seen the Second Rennaisance, with much of the old technology recovered, and Second Age of Exploration, with exploration ships like Lumiere ranging the galaxy and surveying worlds. Several alien races had been found, as well as several surviving, even prosperous, Exile worlds.

"I bet if we save the world, we become a major player in all this," Aer told Neveril.

"A large responsibility," Neveril said. "I always imagined when I retired I would marry and settle down, be a political wife."

"Maybe you still can be. Married to Chairman Aerf."

Neveril laughed. "You'd make a horrible Governor. I can't see anyone voting for someone with a reputation for disobeying orders."

Aer shrugged. "Then I'll have the kids and you can be Neverilf."

Neveril sighed. "I'm not sure I can think of Simulacrum as my country anymore. I feel like a citizen of the world now. Helping everyone, from all nations."

"I never cared much about other countries myself. Unless they wanted a fight. Then I'd show them the true power of a Simoun Sybilla."

Neveril smiled. "You did show them, Aer. But we need a dozen more of you if we're to save the world..."

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Next: Amuria


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8:

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

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They were eventually allowed to board their Simoun. All ten of the Lumiere's crew were there. Lieutenant Scott's expression was unreadable. The captain, Aer thought he was called Ting, was stoic. He said, "Don't worry about us. Do what you have to do."

The pair nodded and left the hangar bay. The ship had descended to one hundred thousand feet; Aer drove the Simoun down to thirty thousand, then started the Emerald Ri Majon.

They recovered quickly this time. They had decided to try to get as close to their own time as they could. Aer thought she had a direction to go, a fix on a few Emerald points, and tried to head there.

Something passed close by, just visible outside the canopy. Against the flash of colors, she thought she saw another Simoun. She dismissed it as another ghost image, an overlay of something else.

The controls began to fight her. It felt like they were being drawn along by something. Aer realized the Simoun outside might be real, creating a wake and pulling them along.

"Neveril! I think there's someone out there!"

"I see them. Try to follow them."

"Right!" Aer stopped fighting the controls and aloowed them to drift for a short time, then adjusted to get closer to the other craft. She could almost make out the pilots...

They emerged over a town. When they had stablized, Aer looked over the buildings. They had seen better days. Some of the central ones seemed to have been refurbished. Several Simouns were landed on a grassy field nearby. Aer headed there with the other one that had emerged with them.

They set down near the other Simouns and climbed out. Several figures, some in strange gear, were standing nearby, sitting on ruined structures, broken columns and masonry. They climbed out and slowly walked toward them.

Aer scanned the faces. One she recognized from a photograph she had seen. Sitting on a fallen column, lavender hair, blue eyes. She and Neveril were staring transfixed at each other.

"Amuria..." Neveril said.

"Amuria?" Aer asked. "That's Amuria?" This felt awkward. Aer wasn't sure what she was supposed to say.

"Good to see you, Neveril," Amuria said.

"Amuria... I - this... this is Aer... "

"I know. Always difficult when the old girlfriend meets the new one, isn't it?" She regarded Aer as if passing judgement. Neveril was sure Amuria was seeing her as unworthy.

"I thought you were dead -"

"Technically, we are. All of us. Including you. Come one. We can let our personal problems wait. There's a lot to tell you." She started walking into town.

Neveril found it hard to register anything that had been said. Her emotions were jumbled. *Just why did I want to meet Amuria again?* she asked herself. *What did I hope to do? How did I think I would feel? That SHE would feel?*

She suddenly felt ashamed at not having thought that far ahead. She had violated a basic rule of sybillae life: Always focus on others, their needs, their feelings, their impressions. This was not her, not the girl who had become known as Sybilla Aurea, most accomplished Simoun Sybilla in centuries.

Amuria was doing better remembering her principles. "I know this is all confusing," she said. "You want to know where we stand, you, me, and her. It's going to take a while for you to figure out your feelings. Right now you should just get to know everyone and learn what's going on."

The group of sybillae walked into the center of town, where tables had been set up in a grassy park. Some had maps or diagrams. One had tea and cakes. "Help yourself," Amuria said. "You probably still feel the need to eat. That will pass eventually."

Aer dove right in. "Hey, these are good!"

"All of these sybillae have performed the Emerald Ri Majon?" Neveril asked, indicating the rest of the sybillae gathered in the park. All eyes were on the new arrivals. She was used to such attention, mainly from trainees; her fellow sybille she had always regarded as equals, but some had regarded her as superior to all others. All of those around her now, however, had every reason to regard her as an inferior. She hadn't felt this way since shortly after her assignment to Chor Tempest, when her reputation had started to grow.

"You probably have a million questions," a brown-haired sybilla said. "We'll try to answer them. First off, you should start getting to know everyone. I'm Fraisie."

Other syabillae named themselves in turn. Durem, Lethaenon, Valaron, Rhidach, Jarmila, Rill, Arle, Algrem, Kapono, Valatari, Tanaru... the names kept coming, more than one person could remember immediately. In all there were forty-eight, including herself and Aer.

"Right." Fraisie took a beep breath. "Overview: Four thousand years from the first writing systems to the first Industrial Age - the time when the Ancients first invented the technology and industry that other nations were re-inventing in your time. A thousand more years to the Fall. A thousand years from there to the First Sybillae. A thousand years from them to you. Eight hundred years from you to the death of the last Daikurikan. She could have lasted centuries longer, but after some point it's all about will, and where's the will when you're alone? Couple of centuries after that the aliens come to pick over our bones.

"You'll need to know a bit more detail about the Fall. The hundred years before the Fall was full oof war and civil strife. All kinds of tensions and hostilities - racial, nationalist, ethnic, religious, Newtypes against naturals. People were starting to live centuries, but they still bred like they would die in decades, leading to a pileup of population. The world is only so big, it can feed only so many people. From a peak population of over ten billion we sank to around three billion at the time of the Fall, and bottomed out a century afterward at less than a million.

"The Final War lasted seven years, and saw a lot of research into the real time- and space-bending technologies and Ri Majons. The Emerald Ri Majon was worked out theoretically, but the government was hesitant to try it. The equivalent of six choirs were used to hide one of our emergency nanite fluid reservoirs in a pocket universe - think of an island just away from our universe's mainland, with a small bridge of space connecting. That effort killed several of the sybillae involved, so it wasn't tried again. That emergency reservoir would save us; it would become the Spring.

"The war caused catastrophic damage to the world; large regions became uninhabitable. We worked on ways to reverse the damage. We devised Ri Majons that would send large numbers of people back in time. The largest of these was the Grand Ri Majon, which you saw. It partially worked - it would have been a miracle if it had gone any better, and caused any less damage. But from a physical standpoint it certainly didn't help. The whole system was devastated. An interstellar probe thought we had gone nova. But there was an upside - more than half of us here came from there - we were the performers in some of the Simouns used."

"You... were in that?" Aer said.

"Over five hundred Simouns were involved. When it was done, twenty-eight of us found ourselves... beyond mortality. We had become transcendent beings. One with Time and Space. The 'gods' of Tempus Spatium."

"You're saying you're the gods?"

Fraisie smiled. "Gods aren't so awesome when you're one of them, eh?"

"We..." Aer was suddenly speechless.

"We are not without our limits. The big one is that we can't change our own past, the events leading up to us. We can't stop the Fall, or decide the wars quickly and with less damage to the world. We became stewards, watching over the world, protecting it from destruction.

"The First Sybillae, Dominura and Rimone, didn't fully join us. They did train a number of other sybillae in the Emerald Ri Majon, and our numbers grew. After Rimone died, Dominura went into seclusion, then emerged as Onasia. Records were sealed away; many things were forgotten.

"About fifty years before your time references to the Emerald were re-discovered. The descriptions were promising, tantalizing. The special research choir, Chor Dextra, tried it, with mostly the same results as your first try with Amuria. There were only two successful efforts - our last four members before you. Dominura and her pair managed to survive their attempt and decided they weren't going to be able to do it, and stopped. Dominura was allowed to remain in service on Onasia's orders - obviously setting herself up, what they call a time-loop, which can get complicated. Her pair... was Granisie."

Aer found her voice again. "My grandfather? He was Dominura's first pair?"

Fraisie shook her head. "They'd had other pairs before joining Dextra. It was a special research choir, remember. All the members were at or near retirement. One last service to the Temple before going to the Spring. He chose his fate. You would know why."

"Life is about making choices," Aer said, rembering her grandfather, "and some of them, when you've made them, you can't go back."

She looked at Neveril. The pink-haired sybilla seemed as amazed by everything as Aer was. Amazed and conflicted. What they had just learned was a direct challenge to her faith. Faith had always been her strength, she had worked hard to be an exemplar as a priestess, but now she was finding things weren't what she had thought they were, what ANYONE had thought they were.

"It's a lot to absorb, I know," Fraisie said. "Let's rest a bit. It's getting near bedtime anyway. You'll need to learn a lot more stuff, like history and languages. We have crystals and readers from Ancient times. It will be a long few months."

"Months?" Aer said. "What about Argentum? Are we just going to leave them to destroy the tunnels to the Spring and let the world die?"

"Oh, they will be the first real roadblock to clear. Don't worry, you'll get your payback for the friends you've lost. Remember, though, the future of the world after your time isn't set. You may find it different when we're done. Your friends from Chor Tempest may suffer... or benefit. There are hard choices ahead, and the future isn't what it used to be."

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Aer found it hard to sleep that night. She woke up and left the refurbished house she and Neveril had taken. *At least no one bats an eye at us sharing a bed,* she thought as she stepped out into the moonlight.

Amuria was there, sitting on some masonry, staring at the moon. She noticed Aer in the doorway to her home and motioned her over. After a moment Aer came and sat down next to her.

"You've haven't been to the moon yet, have you?" she said. "A pretty lively place, if you land at the right time."

"We didn't exactly have control over that," Aer said. "I'm guessing you guys did."

Amuria chuckled. "Yeah, it should have been pretty obvious. We could have pulled you in immediately, given you a guided tour, but we figured you should see things firsthand for yourselves, and figure things out on your own. I guess we could have designed a better itinerary. And we thought you should get time to be together."

"What about you? Were you okay with that? Have you given up on her?"

Amuria looked down, staring into the distance as if looking inside of herself. "Part of me will always love her. But I realize now I wasn't right for her. I admit it, I was a fool. I pushed her into trying the Emerald. When that drop fighter was sucked up past our canopies, and we could see into the cockpit, I warned Neveril not to look. She was too empathetic. Good quality for a priestess, but in this situation we had to be soldiers, and I knew she couldn't kill the enemy if she looked them in the eye, as you or I could."

"So that was how she lost you..."

Amuria shook her head. "No. When I found myself falling through time and space, I thought it was her. Tempus Spatium's punishment for daring the forbidden. Separation from her, loss of her love. But then I wound up here, and the others explained things to me."

She looked Aer in they eye. "It was me. The sin was mine. The records said the Emerald would 'bring us closer to Tempus Spatium', it would 'open all doors' and grant us whatever we desired. I wanted power. I thought the Emerald would make us more powerful, give us the ability to win. That wasn't what the Emerald was about. I was completely missing the point of the descriptions.

"When sybillae try the Emerald Ri Majon, frame of mind matters. Your focus, your intent. I was focussed on power, so Tempus Spatium dumped an atomic bomb's worth of energy into the area. You were focussed on going to another world, and so was she, so you found other worlds."

"Ah. You wanted power. Isn't that just being greedy? Not good for a priestess, isn't it?" Aer had ended up getting almost sick of priestesses telling her what qualities to cultivate.

"Well, I was never the best priestess. Even Paraietta and Roatreamon were better than me. But when I was a child I lost family in one of the invasions. Later, as a trainee, I learned how many people had suffered as I had, how much they depended on the sybillae and their Simouns. I learned how important it was to be strong, to protect the ones you love. I decided I wanted to keep getting stronger, so that nothing would be able to hurt my friends, my family, my country."

"I hear that. We had to protect the country, and we tried our best, and we just weren't good enough. We needed to be stronger. All of us."

"Stronger as soldiers, not as priestesses," Amuria said. "And it didn't help that the elites, the rich and powerful families, kept a lock on the flight slots.  
Class conflict had already caused revolutions in other countries. We were becoming a prime candidate for that.

"Really, though, I don't think now that the Emerald Ri Majon would have helped, in any way. It's not for fulfilling sybillae desires. It's best used for love. To express it, consummate it. You should focus on love when you're trying it. That's what Dominura and Rimone were doing when they did it."

"Look where it got them! And it didn't last. They split."

"Well, then, you better watch out," Amuria said mischeiviously. "You wouldn't want Neveril to get away from you." She cast her eyes to one side. "Speaking of which... we have company."

Aer turned around. Neveril was sitting in a seat at the table behind them. She hadn't even heard her come up. "How long have you been there?"

"Almost as long as you two," Neveril said. "Don't you find it chilly out here?"

Aer reddended. If she had heard all of that... "Let's warm up, then. Care to come back inside?"

They made their way back to bed. Aer went to sleep wondering if their talk had helped Neveril get a grip on her feelings. If they still had work to do, the last thing they needed was a sybillae who didn't know where her heart lay.

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AN: This is what I have right now. It may be a while before I can continue, with RL concerns to deal with.

If I had the inspiriation and/or skills, I would do another fic tracing Neveril, Paraietta, Kaim, Alty, and Rodoreamon from early childhood, about age five or six, through their years in training up to graduation. They wouldn't all be together until they are assigned to Tempest. Early on we would see how the Ri Majons used to delebrate major holidays would inspire them to become sybillae; scenes in the training program would show the discipline and social character of the program; and we would see some background on the sybillae's families. the main block is that I would need at least a dozen original characters.

About going up against Comanches or Raptors... seems inappropriate to me. You could DO it, but you'd need to specify loadouts and electronics suites. Seems to me if those things are equal, the Simouns might have the edge against Comanches but thei rlack os supersonic speed will doom them against Raptors.

A better matchup to me is to place them in the world of Last Exile. Vanships and sky dreadnoughts... one choir is probably worth the whole Anatoray fleet.

(Also, you may want to know: I haven't taken orders form the military in 18 years... 8^P )


End file.
